Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold admitted that his phone call with ace pitcher Freddy Peralta on Wednesday night was an emotional one. After Peralta helped Milwaukee reach the doorstep of the World Series last fall, the Brewers made the difficult decision to deal him to the Mets.
This is the second straight offseason the Brewers have traded a premium pitcher in an effort to fuel the future.
“We’ve had to make these in the past,” Arnold said late Wednesday evening. “We loved having Freddy Peralta here, and everything that he meant to this franchise.”
The Brewers sent Peralta and swingman Tobias Myers to the Mets for two prospects, infielder Jett Williams (now the Brewers' No. 3 prospect) and right-hander Brandon Sproat (No. 6). The trade follows a pattern of flipping star pitchers heading into contract years -- Corbin Burnes to the Orioles in February 2024, then Devin Williams to the Yankees that December -- in exchange for controllable, Major League-ready talent.
This year it’s Peralta, the 29-year-old right-hander coming off a stellar season in which he made his second All-Star team and led the National League in victories while going 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA. It was his third consecutive season of 30-plus starts and 200-plus strikeouts, thresholds only Peralta and Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease have met over that span.
Cease signed with Toronto for $210 million over seven years in December. Peralta, in contrast, will cost the Mets $8 million in 2025, the final year of a club-friendly contract he inked in 2020 with 22 Major League starts on his resume, when he was still pitching almost exclusively with fastballs.
With Peralta poised to hit the free-agent market next winter, the Brewers faced that familiar choice: move forward and risk losing the pitcher one year from now, or find a trade that makes sense now to balance the present with the future.
“The reality is that we have one year left here with Freddy Peralta,” Arnold said. “That’s always going to be a challenge for us. … But to add two players that we like and have them as part of this group, hopefully, potentially, this season and well beyond that is something we felt like was very good for the Milwaukee Brewers.”
In this latest swap with the Mets, the Brewers are adding two young players who were expected to contribute at the Major League level for New York in 2026. Arnold said both Williams and Sproat will come into Spring Training with an opportunity to earn spots on the Opening Day roster.
Williams, 22, was a first-round Draft pick in 2022. He’s played shortstop, second base and center field in the Mets’ farm system. Last year between the Double-A and Triple-A levels, Williams hit .261/.363/.465 with 17 homers, 34 doubles, seven triples, 52 RBIs, 76 walks, 91 runs scored and 34 stolen bases.
That sounds like the type of player who will fit right in with a group that used speed, defense and peskiness to win 97 games under manager Pat Murphy last year.
“It fits Murph’s style of player,” Arnold said. “This kid’s a gamer. He’s not that big, but I can tell you he plays with a ton of heart and he’s got incredible tools. And he’s one of the fastest players in the Minor Leagues. I think that his versatility is something that’s going to fit very, very well for this team.”
Sproat, 25, debuted last season, making four starts with a 4.79 ERA. He struck out 17 and walked seven in 20 2/3 innings. In 121 innings at Triple-A, the righty had a 4.24 ERA with 113 strikeouts and 53 walks. Sproat led with his sinker (95.7 mph on average, per Statcast) in his stint with the Mets, while featuring a sweeper, curveball, changeup, four-seamer and slider.
“He’s a guy that we’ve liked going back to the Draft,” Arnold said of the 2023 second-round pick. “He’s Major League ready. He’s going to compete for a spot in our rotation, but this guy has incredible stuff. Very high-octane. Really good movement.”
With Peralta’s absence, the Brewers’ rotation projects to be led by veteran Brandon Woodruff. Arnold noted that Woodruff is currently on track for a healthy Spring Training after making it back from nearly two years of shoulder rehab last season, only to go down again in late September with a lat strain.
“It sounds like everything is progressing very, very well,” Arnold said.
Woodruff’s presence as a clubhouse and rotation leader helped Arnold’s decision-making, given the slew of young arms in Milwaukee. Sproat joins 2025 standout Quinn Priester, flamethrowing Jacob Misiorowski, unsung right-hander Chad Patrick and prospects like Logan Henderson and Robert Gasser.
“We still feel like we’re going to have a very strong rotation in 2026,” Arnold said.
The Brewers originally acquired Peralta as one of three teenage pitchers from the Mariners in a December 2015 trade that sent first baseman Adam Lind to Seattle. Peralta was in the Majors by 2018, called up to Coors Field in a pinch when Brewers starter Chase Anderson was sidelined by illness. Peralta, 21 at the time and still wearing braces, carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning that day and set a Brewers rookie record with 13 strikeouts in a memorable Mother’s Day victory over the Rockies.
In the years that followed he added a slider and then a changeup to his repertoire, took care of his growing family by inking a long-term contract and became a leader for the Brewers on the field -- he’s 70-42 with a 3.59 ERA in parts of eight Major League seasons -- as well as in the clubhouse, where Peralta has been particular influential in bringing along budding star outfielder Jackson Chourio and closer-in-waiting Abner Uribe.
“We both have cared about each other for a long time,” Arnold said. “We traded for him when he was 19 years old and have just seen him grow up. I care so much about him and who he is and about his family, and I remind him that he’s always going to be part of our Brewers family.”
Why would the contending Brewers trade such a pitcher, when they have every intention of extending a stretch of seven postseason appearances in the past eight years? For the same reason they traded a former Cy Young Award winner, Burnes, and a two-time NL Reliever of the Year, Williams, in recent years.
The Burnes trade netted two premium prospects in infielder Joey Ortiz and left-hander DL Hall who were just getting their big league careers started. The Williams trade netted veteran starter Nestor Cortes, who didn’t work out, along with a rookie who did, Caleb Durbin, who wound up claiming the third base job and finished third in 2025 NL Rookie of the Year Award balloting.
Now, Arnold shipped Peralta to the Mets, led by president of baseball operations David Stearns, who was atop the Brewers’ front office when the pitcher first arrived in Milwaukee.
“He obviously knows the players well,” Arnold said of Stearns. “Hopefully, these are the types of trades that work out for both sides.”