After Finding a Creative Solution to a Mechanical Problem in 2024, Freddy Peralta Feels At Home Again This Spring

Over the course of the 2024 season, Freddy Peralta made a subtle but important move across the pitching rubber. He typically sets up on the third-base side of the mound, but within the season, he moved over to the first-base side. It wasn't a matter (at least directly, or consciously) of dealing with an injury, but rather, a needed change of alignment to help him perform at his best.

"Naturally, I’ve always been on the third-base side. That’s my whole career," Peralta said Saturday at the Brewers' spring training complex in Maryvale. "So last year, I was having a little issue with my delivery. That’s why I moved to the middle, because I was feeling more comfortable. During the offseason, I worked to [be able to] be back on my third-base side, and I moved back again. It’s been good."

Indeed, this spring, Peralta is back where he's generally been set up, on the third-base side of the rubber. He believes he's fixed the mechanical issue that was hindering his effectiveness from that spot, which particularly affected his ability to work to his glove side.

"I wasn’t able to execute my fastball away from righties," he said. "It was getting hard, because I wasn’t having [my usual amount] of extension. But like I said, I worked on that, and I feel better now."

We saw that, too. Peralta's extension was diminished for most of 2024, which is one number telling us a larger story about a bit of lost athletic explosion in his delivery—and therefore, a bit less of a problem posed to opposing hitters. Notably, though he recovered a chunk of that late in the season, by moving over on the rubber and reducing the crossfire element in his delivery a bit.

If the diagnosed problem was mechanical, though, why wasn't the solution so? Why, instead, did Peralta approach the problem by starting from a different point? The answer lies in the difference between what's fixable within a season, and what has to wait for the longer feedback loops and less urgent need for rapid improvement of the offseason.

"It’s hard to be changing—even little stuff, it’s hard to be changing that kind of stuff during the season," Peralta said. "You don’t want to deal with that, and then have something major happen. That’s why I chose to take the easier way, and work on it, but leave that work to the offseason."

By thinking creatively and availing himself of his athleticism and proprioception, Peralta found a workaround for his fastball glitch for the balance of 2024 without risking injury. Was it perfect? No. He still allowed a higher OPS and saw his strikeout rate dip in the second half, even as he put up an impressive 3.06 ERA. It kept him on the mound and in position to help the team, though, and didn't risk a serious injury. Now, having put in a winter of work and feeling good enough to return to his home on the third-base side of the rubber, he has a chance to get back to full effectiveness in 2025—featuring a better interplay between his fastball and slider and more of the whiffs that are so vital to his profile.