By Freddy Peralta Faces His Former Mets Teammates — But He’s a Different Pitcher Now
By Ken Filler | Tampa Bay Sports Journal
ST. PETERSBURG — There may not be a better example of what the Tampa Bay Rays do with pitchers than the guy taking the mound Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.
Freddy Peralta will face the New York Mets for the first time since they traded him to Tampa Bay on Aug. 2.
But the pitcher the Mets will see Tuesday night isn’t the same one they traded away a month ago.
“I feel different mentally and physically,” Peralta said Monday. “I feel really comfortable right now.”
Peralta acknowledged that he had been working on his problems while pitching for the Mets, but couldn’t get them corrected.
“I was working on a lot of stuff when I was in New York, but I couldn’t make the adjustment until I got here,” Peralta said. “The more important thing is now I am in the spot that I want to be.”
Peralta Wasn’t Himself With the Mets
When New York acquired Peralta from Milwaukee during the offseason, the Mets believed they were getting a front-line starter.
Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA for Milwaukee in 2025 and had established himself as one of the better starting pitchers in the National League.
It never came together in New York.
Peralta went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts for the Mets. His strikeouts declined, his hits and walks increased, and the fastball that had helped make “Fastball Freddy” so effective wasn’t fooling hitters the same way.
The Mets eventually decided to move on, sending Peralta to Tampa Bay for Gary Gill Hill, Émilien Pitre and Aidan Smith at the trade deadline.
Peralta hasn’t blamed New York.
In fact, he specifically dismissed the idea that the pressure of pitching in the nation’s largest media market was responsible for his problems.
He also said the Mets coaches tried to help him.
But something wasn’t right.
For perhaps the first extended stretch of his career, Peralta couldn’t figure out how to fix it.
He kept looking for answers.
“I was always trying to find a way to feel better, to pitch better,” Peralta said.
The answers finally started coming in Tampa Bay.
The Rays Saw Something They Could Fix
The Rays didn’t acquire Peralta believing they were getting the pitcher who had a 4.99 ERA with the Mets.
They acquired him believing they could find the pitcher who had a 2.70 ERA with Milwaukee a year earlier.
Almost immediately, Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder, bullpen coach Jorge Moncada, and the rest of Tampa Bay’s pitching group went to work.
The problem wasn’t necessarily Peralta’s arm.
It was how he was delivering the baseball.
Peralta had lost some of the extension in his delivery that had previously made his four-seam fastball so difficult to hit.
Extension matters because the farther a pitcher releases the ball toward home plate, the less time a hitter has to recognize the pitch and react.
Peralta had lost some of that advantage.
The Rays began working on getting him down the mound more efficiently, increasing his extension and adjusting his release point.
“We’ve been getting together and trying to find some stuff,” Peralta said earlier this month, “and we’ve put in the work every day in the throwing program.”
They also changed the way Peralta is using his arsenal.
The Rays have encouraged him to throw his changeup more frequently, another adjustment that can make the fastball even more effective.
It’s not one dramatic overhaul. It’s several relatively small changes.
But this is what the Rays do.
They identify what a pitcher does well, figure out what isn’t working and try to put him in a position where his best stuff plays again.
The results haven’t been perfect since Peralta arrived.
His Rays debut in Colorado was ugly. He allowed seven runs in just 3⅔ innings against the Rockies.
There were other bumps along the way.
But gradually, Peralta started looking different.
Then came his start against Detroit last Wednesday.
That looked like Freddy Peralta.
He pitched six scoreless innings, allowed only two hits and earned his first victory as a Ray in Tampa Bay’s 3-0 win.
More importantly, the mechanics started looking like what the Rays and Peralta had been working toward.
The extension was better. The release point was better. And the fastball played better.
Peralta looked comfortable again.
Before the Detroit start, Shane McClanahan predicted that the work between Peralta and Snyder was going to pay off.
“That relationship with Snyder is going to grow and get deeper,” McClanahan said, “and he’s going to be the best version of himself very soon.”
That is exactly what Tampa Bay needs.
Kevin Cash Sees the Progress
Manager Kevin Cash has also been impressed by the way Peralta has attacked the process.
“He’s fully invested,” Cash said following Peralta’s Detroit start.
Cash pointed to the communication between Peralta, Snyder and Moncada as an important part of the turnaround.
“The messages between starts are a back-and-forth relationship that he has with Jorge and Kyle,” Cash said.
That relationship matters.
The Rays aren’t trying to turn Peralta into somebody else; they’re trying to get him back to being Freddy Peralta.
And now comes perhaps his most fascinating start since arriving in Tampa Bay.
Facing the Guys Who Know Him Best
There won’t be many secrets Tuesday night. Peralta knows the Mets hitters. The Mets hitters know Peralta.
He spent the first four months of the season sharing a clubhouse with many of the guys who will step into the batter’s box against him Tuesday night.
Peralta insists he will approach it like any other start.
“It’s a challenge,” Peralta said. “Every game, I think, for me, I take it the same way. Just come in to compete and try to get the win.”
Cash expects the same.
“I expect that Freddy’s going to go out and do what he’s been doing for us, and that’s compete at the highest level possible,” Cash said.
Still, let’s not pretend this is just another Tuesday night in September.
The Mets acquired Peralta to help lead their rotation.
Four months later, they traded him away.
Now they get to face the pitcher Tampa Bay believes it is beginning to fix.
This Could Be Bigger Than One September Start.
The Rays didn’t acquire Peralta to eat innings during the final two months of the regular season.
They acquired him because they believe he can help them win in October.
And if the Rays have truly unlocked something here, the postseason rotation suddenly becomes even more interesting.
A Freddy Peralta who looks anything close to the pitcher who went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA last season changes things.
He doesn’t have to be the ace and carry the rotation.
He simply needs to be Freddy Peralta again.
Suddenly, the pitcher begins looking a lot more like the guy everyone remembered.
Peralta isn’t declaring victory yet.
But he knows something has changed.
“The good thing is that now I’m different,” Peralta said. “I feel different.”
Tuesday night, his former teammates will get their first look at just how different Freddy Peralta has become.
If the Rays have indeed found the pitcher hiding underneath four frustrating months in New York, the Mets won’t be the only team paying attention.
The rest of the American League should be, too.
