Climbing to the top at a very high speed
Peralta soared through Brewers’ system
PHOENIX – When you’re trading established, veteran players for young minor-league prospects, you do so with the knowledge you won’t know for some time how it’s going to work out on your end.
But Freddy Peralta did not make the Milwaukee Brewers wait long before debuting in sensational fashion Sunday in Denver.
At his first winter meetings as Brewers general manager in December 2015 in Nashville, David Stearns traded first baseman Adam Lind to Seattle for three 19-year-old pitchers just beginning their professional careers – Peralta, Carlos Herrera and Daniel Missaki, all righthanders.
The Brewers already were well into a large-scale rebuilding program in which every regular player other than leftfielder Ryan Braun eventually would be
traded. Lind did not figure in the club’s future and Stearns used him to acquire three very young pitchers projected to have some upside.
There was some thought that Missaki might have the highest ceiling of the three but he was coming off Tommy John elbow surgery, and since has had a second such procedure. He has yet to throw a pitch since the trade.
Herrera began to show some promise last season at Class A Wisconsin (3-2, 3.79 ERA in nine games) and is back with the Timber Rattlers this year. He is off to a slower start (0-2, 5.33) and experiencing command issues (17 walks in 25 1/3 innings) but is still considered a prospect who could make it to the majors.
Peralta quickly showed he would be the fast riser of the three, despite being one of the youngest players in his league at every level. Smallish righthanders – Peralta is listed at 6-0, 168 – often are snubbed in the scouting world, but he never let size hold him back in any way, showing an aggressive, mature style of pitching in which he didn’t hesitate to challenge hitters.
“Our minor-league staff deserves a tremendous amount of credit for helping him succeed, for helping him grow as a pitcher,” Stearns said. “Obviously, he deserves a lot of credit for taking advantage of his opportunities, and work as hard as he has.”
Peralta, who turns 22 on June 4, took a sizable step forward in 2017 while splitting the season between advanced Class A Carolina and Class AA Biloxi. Never mind his meaningless 3-8 record at those two stops. Peralta put together a 2.63 ERA, struck out a whopping 169 hitters – most in the system – in only 120 innings, and limited opponents to a puny .178 batting average.
It was an organizational no-brainer to add Peralta to the 40-man roster over the winter to protect him from being snatched away by another club in the Rule 5 draft. He looked right at home in his first big-league camp in the spring and the Brewers did not hesitate to assign him to Class AAA Colorado Springs, a notoriously tough environment for pitchers.
“When you’re 21 years old and pitching in Triple-A, never mind the big leagues, you’ve moved fast,” Stearns said. “He’s forced our hand at levels by going out and succeeding, and pitching well. Despite his age, we felt confident he could handle all of these levels because of his maturity.
“He’s a very smart kid; taught himself English. He fits in very well in this culture, and has done a very nice job rising through the minor leagues.”
Teams are given credit for getting prospects to the majors as “homegrown” when they were either signed or drafted by that organization. Thus, Peralta is not considered a “home-grown” Brewer.
But, make no mistake about it. The Brewers deserve credit for putting Peralta in the fast lane and allowing him to zip through the system. At the time he was acquired from Seattle, he had spent two consecutive seasons in low rookie ball in Arizona.
“Whenever there are multiple segments of an organization that are involved in a successful outcome, it’s rewarding,” Stearns said.
“In this case, you have a scouting department and analytics department that helped us acquire a player. We had a development group that did a tremendous job helping him get better. Now, we get to see it at the major-league level. So, it’s fun.”
Ranked No. 9 by Baseball America on the Brewers’ prospect list entering the season, Peralta figured to pitch at some point for the Brewers in 2018. He was off to a solid start at Colorado Springs, going 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA in seven starts, with 46 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings while holding opponents to a .231 batting average.
But there was no way to forecast the confluence of events that led to Peralta’s remarkable debut against Colorado. It all began Saturday when right-hander Chase Anderson became ill and was scratched from his scheduled start against the Rockies. Brent Suter moved up a day to fill that spot but when it became evident Anderson had more than a 24-hour bug, the Brewers were left without a starter for Sunday.
Peralta was slated to pitch Saturday night for the Sky Sox, so word was sent to scratch him from that start. The Brewers officially called him up later in the night, put Anderson on the 10-day disabled list, and sent Peralta out Sunday to face Colorado in Coors Field, not known as a friendly venue for pitchers.
At the time, the Brewers did not know that Peralta’s parents, Pedro and Octavia, and girlfriend Maritza had traveled from the Dominican Republic to see him pitch in person for the first time professionally. Instead of watching him take the mound at Security Service Field on Saturday night, they were in the stands at Coors Field when he threw his first pitch in the majors.
Showing no nerves or timidness, Peralta struck out five of the first six hitters he faced and was off to the races. Before reaching 98 pitches, which manager Craig Counsell figured was enough for a first outing, Peralta made history by striking out 13 hitters in only 5 2/3 innings. He allowed just one hit, a single by David Dahl that came in his final inning, in a game the Brewers won, 7-3.
Not only did Peralta establish a club record for strikeouts in a game both in a debut and as a rookie in general, he tied for fourth-most in an MLB first game since 1893. It was the highest debut total since Washington’s Stephen Strasburg whiffed 14 against Pittsburgh on June 6, 2010.
“I’m just happy for Freddy,” Stearns said after the game. “Every now and then in sports, you get a story that lines up, and we have one here. I think it’s really cool for all of us to be part of it, in some small way.
“The unexpected call up, his family happens to be here, and then he goes out and delivers a performance like that. It’s fun for all of us to watch.”
Incredibly, Peralta over-matched the Rockies throwing mostly fastballs – 90 of his 98 pitches. And it’s not as if he blows it up to the plate in the high 90s (mph). Peralta mostly sits in the 90-92 mph range.
But Peralta doesn’t throw just any fastball. His two-seamers run to both sides of the plate and his four-seamers rise to the top of the strike zone and higher, generating many swings and misses (he had 18 on Sunday up in the zone).
“It looked like his fastball was moving five feet,” said Christian Yelich, who got a great view from center field.
Did the Brewers know something like this was possible when they acquired Peralta in December 2015? Of course not. But it’s a credit to everyone involved, mostly the pitcher, that it happened.
“It’s really cool,” Stearns said. “He’s a great kid. Everybody who has coached him in our system has raved about what he means to a team, his work ethic.
"For him to be rewarded like this in what may be a little bit of a surprise manner is great for him.”