The Mets acquired right-hander Freddy Peralta from the Brewers earlier this week, which led to immediate speculation about his new club potentially pursuing an extension. That probably won’t happen right away, however. Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the club plans to give Peralta some time to get comfortable with his new club. President of baseball operations David Stearns later addressed the media via videoconference and his comments matched that reporting.
“I’m not going to speculate on that Day 1 here,” Stearns said of the extension possibility, per Jorge Castillo of ESPN. “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.”
The reason Peralta was traded away from Milwaukee is that the Brewers generally don’t spend at a level to keep their best players. Guys like Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams have all been traded in recent years as they reached free agency. Peralta ended up going down the same road but his new club has far deeper pockets than his previous team.
Stearns is very familiar with Peralta and is clearly fond of him. He already signed him to an extension once, when both were with the Brewers back in 2020. This week, Stearns surrendered a couple of notable prospects by sending Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to Milwaukee in order to reunite with Peralta and acquire Tobias Myers.
Now that Stearns has access to more financial resources, he would presumably love to get Peralta to sign on the dotted line again. Based on this week’s scuttlebutt, it seems there won’t be a rush to get that done. Spring training is a common time for extension talks to take place, so maybe more news will trickle out in the next couple of months. In-season extensions are rare but not totally unprecedented. If Peralta gets to the end of 2026 healthy and without a deal in place, he would be a lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer on his way to free agency.
Stearns also addressed a couple of other players on the roster in a sit-down with team reporter Andy Martino. In that interview, Stearns says that outfield prospect Carson Benge still has a chance to break camp with the team even after the Luis Robert Jr. acquisition and that Kodai Senga is expected to be in the rotation.
Back in November, Stearns said that Benge would have a chance to make the team. Not long after making those statements, the Mets opened up a big hole in their outfield by trading away Brandon Nimmo for second baseman Marcus Semien. They then made a spirited effort to sign Kyle Tucker, offering him a four-year deal with a heavy average annual value, but he accepted a similar offer from the Dodgers. The Mets then pivoted and acquired Robert from the White Sox via trade.
After the shuffle, there’s still a path for Benge. The Mets currently project to have Juan Soto in right and Robert in center. At the moment, Benge would seemingly be battling with Tyrone Taylor for the job in left. Taylor is a light hitter but a strong defender, so he would ideally be pushed into a fourth outfielder role by Benge taking the left field job. And given Robert’s history, there’s a decent chance of Taylor ending up getting regular playing time in center as well.
Benge has no major league experience yet and isn’t on the 40-man roster. His Triple-A work is also short and unimpressive, though he was perhaps unlucky there. He began last year at High-A and tore through that level as well as Double-A, slashing a combined .308/.413/.513 for a 174 wRC+ at those two stops while playing all three outfield positions. He finished his 2025 with a .178/.272/.311 slash at Triple-A, though that was in a tiny sample of 103 plate appearances, during which he had a .188 batting average on balls in play.
The Mets are showing a good amount of faith in Benge by leaving a door open for him, even after he put up those rough numbers in Triple-A. If he doesn’t perform in the spring, they have a few fallback options in addition to Taylor. Brett Baty no longer has a position after the Bo Bichette signing and could end up out in left field. Vidal Bruján and Jared Young are infielder/outfielders on the roster. Cristian Pache and Ji Hwan Bae are non-roster options. The Mets may add to that group but it may be more depth additions if they want Benge to still have a path.
As for Senga, he looked dominant in 2023 when he posted a 2.98 earned run average but hasn’t been as much of a sure thing since then. He missed most of 2024 due to injury. Last year, he struggled enough to get optioned to the minors in September. He then popped up in some trade rumors this offseason but is still on the roster. Assuming Stearns is being forthright in his recent comments, Senga will have a rotation job when the season begins.
As of now, the rotation candidates include Peralta, Nolan McLean, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea and Senga. McLean still has options but it would be quite surprising if the Mets sent him down, given how he dominated in his first eight big league starts. If everyone stays healthy, then the Mets may need to run a six-man rotation or bump someone to the bullpen.
Holmes was a reliever prior to last year and could return to that role but he had a pretty good season as a starter, posting a 3.53 ERA. Manaea and Peterson have occasionally been bumped to long relief roles and could perhaps do so again. A six-man rotation would keep all the starters a bit more fresh but would leave the Mets with a seven-man bullpen, given the 13-pitcher roster limit.
This would only really be an issue for as long as everyone is healthy, which doesn’t happen very often in today’s game. If multiple injuries arise, Myers, Jonah Tong, Christian Scott and others are on the roster and should be ready to step up.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images