Will the Mets get more than one year from Peralta?

NEW YORK -- Given that Freddy Peralta is now a Met, and that the Mets have gobs of money, and that Peralta only has one year left on his contract, and that president of baseball operations David Stearns knows him well, the Mets’ trade for Peralta on Wednesday immediately begged the question: Might the Mets consider extending him to a long-term deal?

“I’m not going to speculate on that on Day 1 here,” Stearns said on Thursday on a conference call to discuss the trade. “We’ll let Freddy get acclimated to the organization, and any conversations that we may have or have in the future, I think we’re going to do our best to keep private.”

When the Mets sent Top 100 prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to the Brewers for Peralta and fellow right-hander Tobias Myers, they did so while viewing the deal mostly through the prism of 2026. While Myers is under team control for five more years, Peralta is not. He can become a free agent after the upcoming season unless the Mets extend him.

That, to Stearns, is not an idea he considered in a tangible way while negotiating the trade.

“I think as you’re evaluating a transaction where the player is under contract for a relatively short amount of time, you have to assume the player is under contract for a relatively short amount of time and make the transaction with those assumptions,” Stearns said. “Clearly, that can change. But when you’re going through the evaluation period, I think you have to make the determination that the contract is the contract, and the player is under contract for a finite period.”

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Peralta, 29, would be an obvious extension candidate in most markets, but especially in Queens, where owner Steve Cohen has proven a willingness to dole out big money for players. But the right-hander has also earned the right to test free agency if he wants to, rather than extend himself with a team for which he has yet to play.

That said, there is precedent for this sort of thing. When the Mets agreed on a package to acquire Johan Santana in 2008, they did so under the condition that they would negotiate an extension. When they dealt for Francisco Lindor in 2021, there was no exclusive negotiating window, but the Mets still spent the rest of that offseason talking money.

In both instances, deals were done. Yet every situation is unique. In general, these types of conversations tend to happen during Spring Training, when players and management types work in close proximity. And even if a deal doesn’t happen this time, the Mets are comfortable with the package they surrendered to acquire Peralta and Myers.

“Giving up good players hurts,” Stearns said. “Those guys are going to be playing in Milwaukee for a long time, and we’re going to be competing against them. We’re also really excited to get Freddy and Tobias here, and I think both those guys are really going to help us.”

Should the Mets attempt to extend Peralta, one factor working in their favor would be Stearns’ familiarity with him. The general manager who acquired Peralta for the Brewers in 2015, Stearns worked alongside him for nearly a decade before leaving Milwaukee, overseeing the right-hander’s rise from unheralded prospect to young reliever to one of the game’s best starting pitchers. There is not just a familiarity here, but a respect.

“This is someone who, first and foremost, is a really good person,” Stearns said. “He meshes well with his teammates, with his organization. He’s emerged as a really quality leader in the clubhouse with the Brewers, and he’s constantly getting better. I had a front-row seat of that during his development, during his first few years at the Major League level. He was never satisfied. He wants to get better. And he’s been able to get about as much out of his ability as any player can. That’s been fun to watch.”