Freddy Peralta is More Adaptable Than Ever, and It's Working

As the Brewers embarked on a five-game series at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs amid a stretch of 19 games in 18 days, the second-longest-tenured member of their pitching staff kicked things off on the right note. Freddy Peralta logged six scoreless innings in the series opener on Monday afternoon.

“Just the way he pitched, the way he started, the way he wasn’t willing to give in,” Pat Murphy said. “He just navigated.”

The only real blemish in Peralta’s outing was a 30-pitch fourth inning in which he issued three straight walks to load the bases. Even as an eighth-year veteran, he has never consistently cleaned up the non-competitive misses and resulting inefficiency that have kept him from fully reaching his ceiling. His 17.36 pitches per inning this year is still the fifth-worst among qualified starters.

However, focusing on that remaining flaw in Peralta’s game unfairly downplays how valuable he’s been. Since the start of 2023, he ranks 13th among 97 qualified pitchers in RA9-WAR. It also overlooks just how much he has evolved throughout his career to become the pitcher he is now. Heavily reliant on a deceptive fastball as a rookie, Peralta has since added over 4 mph of average velocity to his heater and used it less—while developing his secondary pitches.

Perhaps the greatest testimony to Peralta’s arsenal development is his changeup. It was virtually nonexistent through his first three seasons. Since he became a full-time starter in 2021, it has gradually emerged as his most consistent secondary pitch. He’s added more consistent arm-side fade to it during that time, maxing out at an average of 16.6 inches this year.

“I was going to say, ‘It's a lie. It's not going to be true,’” Peralta said when asked postgame on Monday whether he believed years ago that his changeup would become a linchpin of his pitch mix. “But, you know, it’s part of the game, part of the growth that I can have as a pitcher, and the learning.”

Peralta threw his changeup a season-high 32% of the time on Monday, including in a key matchup against Cubs rookie Owen Caissie that helped him escape that fourth-inning jam. He threw five changeups in a seven-pitch at-bat. It induced three whiffs for a strikeout, after which Peralta coaxed an inning-ending lineout to escape the frame unscathed.

“We only spoke a little bit about him, and then I just told [catcher Danny Jansen] that I want to be myself with him and read his swing and see what I have working, because I had no idea how I was going to feel facing him in the moment,” Peralta said. “But I told him the changeup and the fastball, the combination was working good.”

It was not the first time Peralta had to feel things out in the moment, and developing a four-pitch mix has given him a greater capacity to do so. Instead of being forced to stick to a specific game plan, he has shown an ability to tweak his mix in real time based on scouting reports, the way his pitches are playing, and how his stuff feels out of his hand.

His last two starts have exemplified it. Before going heavy on changeups on Monday, Peralta threw his slider 32% of the time in his previous outing, his highest rate in a start since April 25, 2024. That was a departure from using his curveball as his preferred breaking pitch, which had been the case for most of this year.

“It’s way different,” he said, comparing his ability to feel his way through certain outings and situations to early in his career. “I'm not going to say that I can expect better results, but I know for sure that it’s way different whenever I'm in those situations. I feel that I have more tools. I feel that I have ways to go, and I don't have to think only of my fastball.”

Peralta currently sports a career-low 2.78 ERA, but his peripherals (3.70 FIP, 3.83 SIERA) show that this is not the most dominant he has ever been. This is, however, the most mature and adaptable version of him yet. Deep counts and jams will always be part of the experience, but he is now weathering them with some extra veteran guile. He’s been available and effective, the two most important attributes of a starting pitcher. It's not out of the question that he could win 20 games this year, and while that statistic carries much less weight than it used to, it would be a fitting testament to the mutual importance of team and ace pitcher to one another. Peralta's maturation has mirrored the team's transcendence.