Mets scratch Freddy Peralta from Friday start vs. Marlins as trade rumors intensify
Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta looks on during the sixth inning against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Mets had just been eliminated from playoff contention in Game 162 of the 2025 season as Carlos Mendoza emerged from a room in the bowels of loanDepot Park, only to be nearly run over by Billy the Marlin, who was scampering through the hall after celebrating on-field.
Mendoza stutter-stepped to avoid a collision and ceded ground to the Marlins’ wide-grinned, sharp-snouted mascot, with that last absurd indignity presumably propelling him straight into the “acceptance” stage of grief.
Mendoza is long gone, and the season technically is long from over, but you can argue that the Mets’ demise again occurred in the shadow of that mocking marlin’s razor rostrum.
The Mets’ playoff hopes vanished weeks ago, but the white flag officially billowed late Thursday night when David Stearns kicked off his fire sale, shipping A.J. Minter to the Twins for two prospects.
It was further solidified Friday when Freddy Peralta was scratched from his scheduled start against the Marlins.
“I think as talks have intensified — and I won’t get into characterizing where they are at this point in time — it just became a prudent path for us,” interim manager Andy Green said Friday afternoon before naming Kodai Senga that night’s starter. “There’s enough [trade chatter] going on right now . . . That doesn’t mean something is going to materialize tonight.”
More chips will fall by 6 p.m. on Monday, leaving a shelled team that this year proved it can change its roster, its coaches and its manager but still can’t change its fate — right down to having the same Fish watch it sink.
Peralta’s short tenure was indicative of everything that has gone wrong.
One of the Mets’ biggest offseason acquisitions, the righthander — who finished fifth in the National League Cy Young Award voting last year — was supposed to be the ace who anchored the rotation, a missing component of the 2025 team. The Brewers got two top 100 prospects in Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, and the Mets rented the worst season of Peralta’s career.
Never known for efficiency, he routinely struggled to go deep into games, averaging a little more than five innings in his 22 starts. His 4.99 ERA is second-worst among qualified starters and comes a year after he pitched to a career-best 2.70 ERA.
Still, he has considerable value: Peralta was expected to be one of the biggest pieces moved at the deadline and potentially one of the more lucrative ones for the Mets, who also might get significant hauls for Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver. He has 33 1⁄3 innings of playoff experience — though a 4.32 ERA to show for it — and a proven ability to take the ball every fifth day.
Beyond that, his past success is a tantalizing lure for any team that thinks it can pinpoint the genesis of his recent struggles and have him make a contribution during the stretch run.
But for now, Peralta’s scratched start is the proverbial dead canary.
Holmes, who hasn’t pitched in a major-league game since breaking his leg on May 15, threw a side session Friday “with the intent of starting Sunday,” Green said.
With the intent of starting Sunday . . . with the Mets?
“I didn’t declare that either and won’t at present,” Green said, adding that there are a number of variables at play. “Obviously, things change really quick at this time of the year.”
Holmes has a player option for next year but will command more than the $12 million he’s owed. The only real hope of retaining him past this year would be an extension, a topic Holmes recently said has not been broached — meaning he almost certainly is a goner.
If Stearns is close to a deal Sunday, the Mets could consider scratching him to avoid potential injury.
Then there are the other obvious targets. Weaver has one more year on his contract, but his dominance and ability to pitch in high-leverage situations could make him too valuable to retain. Going into Friday, he had allowed only one earned run in his last 29 outings.
Like Minter, Brooks Raley might as well have been signing yearbooks Friday afternoon. Tyrone Taylor, on an expiring contract and on a torrid hot streak, would make a fine fourth outfielder for any contender.
The Mets reportedly are shopping Luis Robert Jr., and there’s an outside chance that Sean Manaea and Huascar Brazoban could be gone as well.
Sure, the Mets should get a neat little return, but what does that mean in reality? It’s hard to be a successful seller when prospect success is so unpredictable.
If you look back at the Mets’ last fire sale in 2023, you’ll note that of the players they got back for Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Mark Canha, David Robertson and Dominic Leone, not one is on the Mets and only two — scuffling first baseman Ryan Clifford and catcher Marco Vargas — are in the organization’s top 30.
That’s not on Stearns — Billy Eppler handled that deadline — but it does paint a dismal portrait of sustained organizational failure.
In that way, Friday was just another instance of deja vu — dorsal fins included.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
