Brewers' Matt Arnold Makes Painful Admission After Mets Blockbuster

The Milwaukee Brewers watched Freddy Peralta grow from a hard-throwing teenager into a true ace.

After nearly a decade in the organization, Peralta was traded on Wednesday night to the New York Mets alongside righty Tobias Myers, in a deal that brought back two top prospects, infielder/outfielder Jett Williams and right-handed pitcher Brandon Sproat.

A 97-win team trading away its best pitcher feels wrong on so many levels. But there's also a simple logic behind it, which Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold freely admitted in the aftermath of the trade.

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Brewers knew Peralta was gone in a year

Peralta was a free agent in a year's time, and with the prices of starting pitching skyrocketing in free agency year over year, Arnold said Wednesday night that he knew there was no chance the Brewers would be able to compete to re-sign him.

“We’ve had to make these in the past,” Arnold said, per Adam McCalvy and Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “We loved having Freddy Peralta here, and everything that he meant to this franchise.

“The reality is that we have one year left here with Freddy Peralta. That’s always going to be a challenge for us. … But to add two players that we like and have them as part of this group, hopefully, potentially, this season and well beyond that is something we felt like was very good for the Milwaukee Brewers.”

The Brewers were wise to sign Peralta to a five-year, $15.5 million pre-arbitration extension before the 2020 season. That became a seven-year, $31.6 million extension when accounting for the two club options they picked up, but next year, Peralta will likely make as much in his first season on a new contract as he did in those past seven years combined.

Spotrac estimates Peralta's market value at five years, $131 million, and even that feels quite light; the Mets would almost certainly have to guarantee him more now to secure an extension.

The biggest contract the Brewers have ever given a pitcher was four years, $50 million for Matt Garza. The highest annual salary they will have ever paid for a pitcher will be the $22 million they owe Brandon Woodruff this year after he accepted the qualifying offer.

This is the way the Brewers do business, and while it's hard to argue with the sustainability of the model, one has to wonder if always shooting for the playoffs instead of trying to load up the roster for one year of true World Series contention will eventually take its toll on the fan base.

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