Milwaukee Brewers: It’s Time To Say Goodbye To Wily Peralta

Back in 2006, the Milwaukee Brewers signed an 18-year old Wily Peralta as an international free agent.  There was a lot of hope by fans that the young flamethrower could one-day turn into an ace for their staff. It’s time for Wily to move on.

Now it is 2017 and Peralta is 28 years old. He has only shown that he can be a capable pitcher on one occasion. Wily was a bright spot of a dismal 2014 season. He had his best year to date and has never come close to repeating that success.

Peralta went 17-11 with a 3.53 ERA. He struck out 154 batters and only walked 61. Since then, his stats have declined.

Before 2014, he was able to throw around 97 or 98 MPH, sometimes touching 100 MPH.  After that great 2014 campaign, Peralta’s fastball velocity dipped into the lower nineties. He was only touching around 93-to-95 MPH.

His statistics after 2014 are quite troubling and really make you scratch your head thinking, “What happened?”

Stats following 2014 season

2015: W-L 5-10, 4.72 ERA, 60 strikeouts, 37 BBs.

2016: W-L 7-11, 4.86 ERA, 93 strikeouts, 43 BBs.

2017: W-L 5-4, 7.85 ERA, 52 strikeouts, 32 BBs.

As you can see Peralta has done nothing but decline at a rapid pace since 2014. This year most of his outings have come out of the bullpen.

Thursday’s game against the Washington Nationals was not a pretty one, that’s for sure. The Milwaukee Brewers found themselves down early after a spot start gone wrong by Michael Blazek.

The Brewers would turn to Peralta to stop the bleeding after Blazek had given up eight earned runs.  Wily, in what had to be his final chance to show he had anything to offer, ended up surrendering seven earned runs of his own. The Brewers would go on to lose the game 15-to-2.

Blazek giving up eight runs is not great to see, but he is a reliever who the team turned to in a tough situation. Peralta, on the other hand, has been a starter his whole career until he went to the bullpen this season.

The Brewers are a 1/2-game back from first place behind the Chicago Cubs.  They are playing the divisional leader and rival for two more games this weekend. They can’t afford to continue using a roster spot on a pitcher who simply isn’t doing his job.

The non-waiver trade deadline is coming up on July 31st at 4 PM eastern time. If the Milwaukee Brewers make another trade before that deadline, Peralta will likely be demoted to make room for the new acquisition.

Next: Check Out Out Trade Deadline Predictions

Since Wily is out of options he will have to be made available to other teams. The Milwaukee Brewers will have to designate him for assignment. Hopefully he gets claimed by a team that can figure out what is wrong with him. You hear a lot about how he “has something special,” and  when you see him pitch you can tell he does. He just can’t seem to harness it in Milwaukee.