Mets’ Stearns hails Peralta’s ‘quality’ leadership, sidesteps extension talks

The New York Mets landed the front-line starter they prioritized all offseason late Wednesday night when they acquired Freddy Peralta from the Milwaukee Brewers to conclude a flurry of major moves over the past week. Peralta will slot into the top of the Mets’ rotation alongside Nolan McLean for 2026, giving the club the one-two punch it badly needed during last season’s historic collapse.

Beyond 2026, however, is unclear. The Mets surrendered two of their top prospects — infielder/outfielder Jett Williams and right-hander Brandon Sproat — for Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers knowing Peralta is slated to become a free agent after the season and could end up being just a short-term option.

That is if the Mets and Peralta don’t come to terms on a contract extension at some point this year. Asked about the possibility of an agreement Thursday, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns declined to discuss the matter.

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“I’m not going to speculate on that Day 1 here,” Stearns said in a videoconference with reporters. “We’ll let Freddy get acclimated to the organization. And, you know, any conversations that we may have or have in the future I think we’re going to do our best to keep private and not talk about publicly.”

Peralta, 29, is due to make $8 million in 2026 — a bargain for a two-time All-Star who posted a 2.70 ERA in 33 starts last season. That salary concludes a contract extension Peralta signed in 2020 with the Brewers — when Stearns was that organization’s president of baseball operations.

Stearns was also the Brewers’ general manager when they acquired Peralta in a trade with the Seattle Mariners in 2015. That familiarity — Stearns noted that Peralta is a player he trusts — helped propel the move to acquire the right-hander again.

“This is someone who, first and foremost, is a really good person,” Stearns said. “He meshes well with his teammates, with his organization. He emerged as a really quality leader in the clubhouse and with the Brewers, and he’s constantly getting better and I had a front-row seat for that during his development.”

Stearns explained that he envisions Myers, who has major league experience as both a starter and reliever, as a reliever who provides rotation depth should the Mets need to tap into it. Myers, 27, has a 3.15 ERA in 49 career appearances (31 starts) in his two big-league seasons and held the Mets scoreless over five innings in Game 3 of the 2024 NL Wild Card Series. He joins the Mets with four years of team control remaining.

“We like his ability to give us multiple innings out of the pen when needed,” Stearns said. “And also flex into the rotation, if that’s the way it goes. So that versatility, the roster flexibility that can come with it, will really help us.”

Peralta and Myers joined infielder Bo Bichette and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. as players the Mets have added over the past week in what has been a roller-coaster offseason for the franchise. The winter began with the club moving on from its four longest-tenured players — Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil via trade and Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz in free agency — over one month, generating angst from a fan base starving for its first championship in 40 years.

The new faces include Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Devin Williams, Luke Weaver plus Peralta, Myers, Bichette and Robert. Semien will play second base after winning a Gold Glove there with the Texas Rangers last season, while Polanco (first base) and Bichette (third base) will play positions they’ve never played in the majors before.

More additions are possible, particularly in the bullpen. But it has been a thorough overhaul that Stearns believes was necessary to better position the club to claim its first NL East title and NL pennant since 2015.

“We’ve got a really tough division,” Stearns said. “We’ve got some really good teams, and some teams that are getting better. Until we win a division, we can’t claim we’re at the top so we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep working. And whether that’s continuing to find every incremental edge that we can find.”