MILWAUKEE – For the second straight offseason, the Brewers have traded a premium pitcher in an effort to fuel the future.
Milwaukee dealt ace right-hander Freddy Peralta and swingman Tobias Myers to the Mets for two prospects, infielder Jett Williams (New York’s No. 3 prospect) and right-hander Brandon Sproat (No. 5). 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.
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.
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.
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. Williams, 22, was a first-round Draft pick in 2022. He’s played shortstop, second base and center field in the Mets’ farm system. Sproat, 25, debuted last season, making four starts (going 0-2) with a 4.79 ERA. He struck out 17 and walked seven in 20 2/3 innings.
With Peralta’s absence, the Brewers’ rotation projects to be led by veteran Brandon Woodruff, who hopes to be healthy in 2026 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. Sproat joins a slew of young arms in Milwaukee, including 2025 standout Quinn Priester, flamethrowing Jacob Misiorowski, unsung right-hander Chad Patrick and prospects like Logan Henderson and Robert Gasser.
