Latest On Mets, Freddy Peralta
The Mets and right-hander Freddy Peralta still haven’t had any serious extension talks, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The report suggests the talks will likely ramp up at some point but the two sides will likely have different priorities. President of baseball operations David Stearns has shown a preference for short-term agreements with pitchers but Peralta tells Rosenthal he would prefer to sign a long-term pact.
Almost as soon as the Mets acquired Peralta in January, speculation began about the club potentially signing him to an extension. Stearns already traded for and extended Peralta once, when he was with the Brewers. Now Peralta is just one season away from that extension ending, as he’s slated for free agency after the 2026 campaign.
Despite the logic, it was quickly reported after the trade that the Mets wouldn’t be rushing anything. They planned to let Peralta get comfortable with his new club for a while. That means it’s not really too surprising that the Mets haven’t yet made a hard push. Some players prefer not to negotiate contracts during the season, though it’s unclear if Peralta has any such preferences.
Whenever talks do get more serious, it’s notable that Peralta and the Mets are potentially starting out with different goals. “I would prefer to go long and make sure I’m going to be in the place where I want to finish my career,” Peralta says to Rosenthal.
That’s in contrast with the general approach of Stearns as a baseball operations leader. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, he has avoided long-term deals for pitchers, both during his time with the Brewers and now with the Mets. He did give five-year extensions to Peralta and Aaron Ashby during is time in Milwaukee, but those deals were for pitchers in their mid-20s. Other than those two early-career extensions, he hasn’t signed a pitcher to a deal longer than three years. Even though he’s now working with one of the largest payrolls in the league, Sean Manaea‘s $75MM deal is the largest guarantee Stearns has given to a pitcher. Rosenthal mentions that the Mets did offer a 12-year deal to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but that was a special case since he was only 25 years old at the time.
Peralta will turn 30 in June and will therefore be going into his age-31 season when he is a free agent. Getting a lengthy deal at that age should be possible for Peralta if he has another strong season. Last offseason, Max Fried got an eight-year deal going into his age-31 campaign. The prior winter, Aaron Nola got seven years ahead of his age-31 season. Dylan Cease is going into his age-30 season, so he is a year younger than Peralta will be in that sense, but his birthday is in December. Peralta’s birthday is in June, so it will only really be a difference of about six months.
In terms of the guarantees, Fried got $218MM, Cease got $210MM and Nola got $172MM. Cease’s deal had notable deferrals, putting the net present value in the $180-185MM range. Peralta has an argument to get into that range next winter, especially when comparing him to Cease.
Over the past five seasons, Peralta has thrown 738 1/3 innings with a 3.30 earned run average, 29.6% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate. In that same span, Cease took on a bigger workload of 884 innings but a higher ERA of 3.72. Cease’s 29.7% strikeout rate was a near match for Peralta’s, with Cease having a higher walk rate of 9.7%. Peralta’s 37.7% ground ball rate was marginally higher than Cease’s 37% clip.
If Peralta is looking to get something resembling the Cease deal, Stearns would have to go to new territory to keep him with the Mets. A deal in that range would require Stearns to more than double his previous high water marks, both in terms of length and guarantee. Perhaps he is willing to buck his previous tendencies since he clearly loves Peralta.
Peralta would be taking on some risk in not signing now, as it’s always possible for a pitcher to get hurt. Perhaps there’s some middle ground that could work for both parties now, where Peralta doesn’t fully max out his earnings by going to free agency next winter, but still locks in a really significant guarantee.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images
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Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast
On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners, though it’s been a long time. Due to a busy offseason with lots to talk about, we haven’t asked our listeners for questions since October.
Now that camps have been open for about three weeks, the newsflow has slowed, so it’s time to open up the mailbag for the first time in months. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.
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Padres’ Blake Hunt Shut Down Due To Oblique Injury
The Padres recently shut down catcher Blake Hunt due to an oblique injury, as reported by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Hunt’s exact timeline for return to action isn’t currently known, but he figures to be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
The 27-year-old was a second-round pick by the Padres back in 2017 but was traded to the Rays as part of the Blake Snell deal while he was still in A-ball. In the years since then, Hunt has bounced between the Rays, Orioles, and Mariners organizations. He was called up to the majors for the first time in July of 2024 but has never made an appearance in the big leagues. In 2025, he performed quite well for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma, slashing .272/.368/.452 (108 wRC+) with eight homers and 15 doubles in just 68 games. Following the 2025 season, Hunt elected minor league free agency and returned to the organization that drafted him on a minor league pact.
Entering Spring Training, Hunt was a non-roster invitee who appeared likely to serve as Luis Campusano‘s primary competition in camp this year. Hunt has long been on the periphery of the majors at this point and is perhaps overdue for a shot at the highest level, and while the out-of-options Campusano entered Spring Training with the advantage of having a 40-man roster spot already, it would’ve been understandable for him to face some pressure head of Opening Day. The 27-year-old appeared in just ten games at the big league level last year and went hitless in those 27 plate appearances. While he did manage to hit an extremely impressive .336/.451/.595 (149 wRC+) at Triple-A last year, he’s a career 88 wRC+ hitter in the majors with lackluster defensive marks behind the plate and has slashed just .211/.276/.336 (75 wRC+) with -0.8 fWAR and -1.1 bWAR when looking at just the last two years.
That lack of production makes it hard to trust Campusano headed into 2026, and his 2-for-12 showing during camp so far hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. Freddy Fermin figures to serve as San Diego’s primary catcher entering the year, but Hunt’s injury could wind up giving Campusano more of a leash as the team’s primary backup. Ethan Salas doesn’t figure to be ready for the majors anytime soon, and the only other catcher in camp at the moment with experience even at Triple-A is 28-year-old Rodolfo Duran. If Hunt’s injury is severe enough to sideline him long-term, it’s plausible that the Padres could look to add some external catching depth to provide further insurance behind their current tandem. Veterans Tom Murphy and Christian Vazquez are still available in free agency, but it’s also possible that veterans on minor league deals in other camps could opt out as Opening Day approaches or that catching depth on the fringes of another organization’s roster could be made available in a minor trade if the Padres were sufficiently motivated to get a deal done.
The Opener: Valdez, Extensions, Free Agents
Here are three things we’re keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Valdez to make Tigers debut:
Tigers fans will get their first glimpse of newly-signed southpaw Framber Valdez on the mound for Detroit, as he’s set to start the club’s Spring Training game against the Braves later today. At 1:05pm local time in at the Tigers’ spring complex in Lakeland, Valdez will face off against Atlanta righty Bryce Elder. The soon-to-be 27-year-old Elder is a one-time All-Star but has struggled badly over the past few years, and is coming off a 2025 campaign where he posted a 5.30 ERA in 28 starts. Valdez, of course, has been one of the top starters in the AL for several years now. Last season was one of his weaker campaigns, but he still posted a solid 3.66 ERA with a 3.37 FIP.
2. More extensions on the way?
Over the weekend, the Cardinals extended manager Oli Marmol on a two-year deal that includes a club option for the 2029 season. There will surely be additional extensions over the coming weeks, both for players and personnel. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk took a look at the managers and top front office executives on expiring contracts back in January, and while a few (including AJ Preller of the Padres and Pat Murphy of the Brewers) have already reached new deals since then, many are still on lame duck contracts. As for players, extension rumors have been fairly quiet to this point in the winter but, as Chris Sale‘s recent extension with the Braves showed just last week, these sorts of deals can come together very quickly.
3. Big league deals still on the table for free agents?
We’re now into the month of March, and Opening Day is just a few weeks away. By this point in the calendar, most veterans lingering on the free agent market are likely to wind up signing minor league contracts. That won’t be the case for all of them, of course; both Lucas Giolito and Zack Littell have the track record and platform season necessary to earn a meaningful big league deal even this late in the year. There’s less certainty on that front for the rest of the remaining free agents, but over the weekend veteran outfielder Starling Marte landed a big league deal with the Royals. That Marte, who is 37 years old and has been more of a part-time player in recent years, was able to get a big league deal could offer reason for optimism for other players still on the market. Who will be the next to sign?
Cardinals Extend Oli Marmol
The Cardinals and manager Oli Marmol have agreed to a two-year contract extension, according to a report from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Marmol was entering the final year of his contract but is now set to remain in St. Louis for the 2027 and ’28 seasons, with a club option for 2029. The Cardinals have subsequently announced Marmol’s new deal.
It’s the second extension Marmol has signed with the Cardinals. The 39-year-old initially took over as manager in St. Louis following Mike Shildt’s dismissal in October of 2021. Marmol’s first season as manager saw the Cardinals romp to a division title with a 93-win season thanks primarily to MVP-caliber performances from both Paul Goldschmidt (who won the award in the NL) and Nolan Arenado (who finished third). Unfortunately, the Cardinals were delivered a quick exit by the Phillies in the Wild Card round that year and went home that October without winning a single playoff game.
The end of the 2022 campaign also marked the end of longtime franchise face Yadier Molina‘s playing career, and Molina’s departure ushered in a transitory period in Cardinals baseball. While the club added an impactful bat behind the plate in Willson Contreras, pitchers in St. Louis struggled to adapt to life after getting so used to working with the nine-time Gold Glover. Meanwhile, both Goldschmidt and Arenado regressed in a big way, and injuries to key players like Brendan Donovan and Tyler O’Neill left the Cardinals tumbling from the top of the NL Central all the way to the bottom with a 91-loss campaign. 2024 saw the franchise get just barely back over .500 with an 83-79 record that left them tied for second place in the NL Central standings, but the team fell right back below .500 in 2025.
Difficult as Marmol’s tenure in St. Louis has been, management and ownership clearly do not lay the organization’s struggles at his feet. They signed him to a two-year extension prior to the 2024 campaign, and even after John Mozeliak retired and new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom took over, both Bloom and team ownership have expressed confidence in Marmol in the run-up to today’s extension.
It’s understandable why the team would choose to stick with Marmol despite a lack of on-field success. The Cardinals have saddled Marmol with a stagnant and aging roster for the majority of his time with the organization. Outside of deals for Contreras and Sonny Gray (both traded to the Red Sox this offseason), St. Louis has made relatively minimal efforts to improve the roster via trades and free agency in recent years, instead banking on internal developments that haven’t come to fruition. That lack of internal development has been attributed to the organization by the team’s decision to reallocate funds that once were used for player development into fortifying the big league payroll, and over the past two years the team has started to move towards a rebuilding phase where they plan to scale back spending and return their focus to building from within.
Given the current state of the organization, it’s understandable that the Cardinals would look to keep someone they had enough confidence in to install as MLB’s youngest manager at the time of his hire. Now headed into his fifth season as a big league manager (with a decade of coaching experience prior to that), Marmol has plenty of experience handling young players and veterans alike. His work with last year’s Cardinals team, which lacked the win-now expectations of most seasons in St. Louis, will surely prove informative for the difficult task of rebuilding into a contender that the organization now faces.
Latest On Merrill Kelly, Corbin Carroll
The Diamondbacks have already had to deal with an unwelcome number of injury scares to key players, though Sunday’s news brought some optimism that Merrill Kelly and Corbin Carroll could both still be a part of the Opening Day roster.
Right at the very start of Spring Training, Carroll underwent surgery to fix a broken hamate bone in his right hand, putting him out of action for roughly 4-to-8 weeks (the usual timeline following such procedures). Last weekend, Kelly was scratched from throwing a live batting practice session due to some back soreness, and the discomfort persisted even though both an MRI and CT scan came back clean. Officially, the diagnosis is intercostal nerve irritation, according to the D’Backs.
It was enough for Kelly to tell the media last Wednesday that he was likely going to be starting the season on the 15-day injured list, though his outlook was different today. Kelly told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other reporters that he received an injection of cortisone and lidocaine earlier this week, and had a pain-free session of catch today. While Kelly won’t act as the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day starter on March 26, the aim is for Kelly to now pitch at the back of Arizona’s rotation, which would line the righty up for his season debut during the team’s second series of the year.
The D’Backs begin the 2026 campaign with three games in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, and then after an off-day, return home for a seven-game homestand against the Tigers and Braves. Given the March 29 off-day, the Snakes could technically delay Kelly’s first start beyond the first five games, though that would leave the club essentially playing a man short until Kelly is ready to take the mound.
With more than three weeks to go until Opening Day, there is still time for Kelly to restart his throwing progression and get fully ready to go, assuming his good health persists. Even if Kelly is only built up to throw something like 50-60 pitches, the D’Backs could use a piggyback starter or lean on the bullpen during the veteran’s first start. On the flip side, Arizona could also simply place Kelly on the IL to give him extra time to heal up, and make sure he is ready to hit the ground running once he takes the mound.
As for Carroll, it has been a little under three weeks since his February 11 surgery, but he described his progress as “definitely ahead of schedule.” The outfielder told Gilbert and other reporters that he started catching fly balls (Carroll’s right hand is his glove hand) today, and he has started to hit with both hands on the bat.
“It’s very low intensity, like flips and tee [work]….I think some other guys that have gone through a hamate injury were happy to see where I am [given] how far I am out of surgery,” Carroll said.
Manager Torey Lovullo described Carroll’s process as “right up to that line of doing too much. He’s pushing as hard as he can and as far as he can, and we love that. So we’ll continue to get updates from [hand surgeon] Don Sheridan and our medical team about what the next steps are, but yeah, he’s doing really, really well.”
Being able to hit and catch normally without any discomfort is only part of Carroll’s path to recovery, as he’ll then have to try and make up for time lost during Spring Training. Carroll has been taking part in other baseball activities, so he won’t be starting from square one once he is fully cleared. It then becomes a question of how many Cactus League games Carroll may be able to play in before March 26, and how many he’ll need before he feels properly ramped up for the regular season.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Mark P
- The Weekend Chat is underway! Let’s kick off March by talking some baseball….
Desperate Yankees fan
- Is my optimism this year valid?
Mark P
- Sure. New York is bringing back largely the same roster that won 94 games last year, plus Gerrit Cole will be healthy.
John
- Is Starling Marte a good fit with the Royals?
Mark P
- If he can duplicate even his 2025 numbers, that’s a big step up from what the Royals got from most of their lineup last year. I doubt Marte will be physically able to play the outfield on the regular, but even from a DH slot, that’s not bad. Signing Marte raises the floor of the K.C. roster, if nothing else
McGonigle’s
- Chances I go north with the Tigers out of spring training.
Mark P
- It may not happen without a pre-career contract extension. Even if McGonigle doesn’t sign a deal or starts the year at Triple-A to get more seasoning, he’ll be in the bigs at some point in 2026
Brady
- Trade idea for you- Marsh plus prospects (say Dante Nori and Jean Cabrera) for Isaac Paredes and Jake Meyers, then Phillies move off Bohm. Thoughts?
Mark P
- This isn’t a fit, but I like the idea in general of the Phillies and Astros matching up on some kind of a trade to address their mutual needs.
“Moving off Bohm” may be a bit easier said than done at this point in the offseason, however, since a lot of teams have their 3B positions filled. Maybe a team like the A’s steps in, or maybe it’s a three-team trade from the jump.
KC Pain
- Do you think we will see another early trade like we did with Priester last year? Teams like the Rays..and well the Brewers seem to have a large glut of arms that can’t possible all fit and have talent waiting in the minors.
Mark P
- It’s only March 1, so it would be unusual if there WASN’T at least one more prominent trade before Opening Day. All it takes is one injury to suddenly make a team more willing to shake up its roster
Jays
- I think the Scherzer signing by Jays was good as most of the salary is based on incentives. As a Jays fan, what do you think ?
Mark P
- I like the signing a lot, more for “you can never have too much pitching” reasons than thinking Scherzer can turn back the clock in 2026. If he covers some innings, posts something like a 4.30 ERA, and continues being a clubhouse leader, that’s more than worth it.
AA
- All the pitching concerns with Atlanta are a bit overblown. Will have players returning in second half of the season. Also, JR Ritchie has the opportunity to be a legitimate contributor to the team this season.
Mark P
- I mean, maybe? But, after Atlanta just had a season wrecked by pitching injuries, it’s obviously not great to have two starters already down less than a month into Spring Training.
Rangers Notes: Jung, Foscue, Church
A pair of injuries have hit the Rangers’ infield mix, as both third baseman Josh Jung and former top prospect Justin Foscue will be out of action for at least the next 10 days. Manager Skip Schumaker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry) that an MRI revealed that Jung has a Grade 1 adductor strain, while Foscue has a right hamstring strain.
Neither injury is thought to be particularly serious, and Schumaker felt Jung in particular was going to be back on the field earlier than expected. In Foscue’s case, while his hamstring isn’t a major concern from a health perspective, the missed time is a setback in Foscue’s bid to win a spot on the Opening Day roster.
“It doesn’t change anything as far as [Foscue’s] chances,” Schumaker said. “He’s just gonna lose at-bats, which sucks for him. But…he’ll still have two weeks left of camp, really, to try to build up. He should get more at-bats.”
Jung is penciled in as the Rangers’ top choice at third base, and the former eighth overall pick is still looking to firmly establish himself as he enters his fifth Major League season. After making the All-Star team and helping Texas win the World Series in his 2023 rookie season, Jung was limited to 46 games due to a right wrist fracture in 2024. He was healthy last year, but struggled to a .251/.294/.390 slash line and 91 wRC+ over 511 plate appearances and was briefly demoted to Triple-A in July.
Now that Jung has become eligible for salary arbitration, the clock may be ticking to some extent on his future in Texas. He is earning a modest $2.9MM salary in 2026, but if Jung doesn’t take a notable step forward at the plate, he could be a non-tender candidate next offseason if the Rangers decide against giving him more chances at a higher price tag. Schumaker did praise Jung’s development in camp, and felt the third baseman’s work was “about to translate on the field.”
Foscue has only three hits over 53 PA at the big league level, translating to a .192 OPS for his brief MLB career. While a small sample size, the rather extreme nature of these struggles has already raised doubts about whether or not Foscue (also a former first-round draft pick, selected 14th overall in 2020) can eventually even hold his own against Major League pitching.
There have also been questions about Foscue’s ability to stick at second base, and the Rangers have been experimenting with Foscue as an outfielder this spring in an effort to increase his versatility. Being able to handle a corner outfield spot as well as first or second base would help Foscue’s chances of sticking on the 26-man roster, but everything will be on hold until he is healed up from his hamstring strain.
In other injury news from the Texas camp, Marc Church has been sidelined due to a teres major strain, but the right-hander is slated to throw a pair of live bullpen sessions this week, Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News writes. Assuming his throwing progression goes as planned, Church should probably get in some game action before Spring Training is over, and he might still have a chance to break camp as a member of the Rangers’ pen.
The teres major strain is another unwelcome setback for Church, as he has been limited to just 38 2/3 total innings (33 in the minors, 5 2/3 in the majors) over the 2024-25 seasons. He missed a big chunk of the 2024 minor league season due to a rotator cuff injury, and he dealt with elbow inflammation, lat problems, and an oblique strain in 2025. If he can finally get healthy, Church is an intriguing candidate for a relief role, as he has a plus slider and splitter to go along with a fastball in the mid-to-high 90s.