The New York Mets added their ace for the upcoming season Wednesday night in a trade for Freddy Peralta. The veteran starter was dominant throughout much of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Peralta is currently only under team control through the 2026 season before he becomes a free agent. As of Thursday evening, it was unknown if the Mets were looking at a potential extension or if they were still riding the wave of adding him.
On Thursday afternoon, Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic projected that Peralta could sign a five-year extension worth $120 million.
“For a projection, let’s go with the consensus and a contract that takes Peralta through his age-34 season in 2030 — four additional seasons of team control,” they wrote. “To keep it that short, we’ll up the average annual value over those four years to $28 million per season — better than those received on the open market by (Dylan) Cease and (Ranger) Suárez. That equals four years and $112 million of new money for Peralta — pretty much in line with what (Tyler) Glasnow received from the Dodgers. The Mets could add the $8 million Peralta is owed this season to make it a five-year, $120 million deal.”
This projection would pay Peralta an average of $24 million per year. However, the Mets could choose to structure it in a way that is front loaded if they are worried about him declining heading into the final two years.
Britton and Sammon did note that this extension would make things worse for the Mets with the luxury tax in the upcoming season. David Stearns would either have to find a way to start the extension after this season or swallow the difficult pill of possibly adding more financial penalties.
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