3 Reasons To Be Excited About Freddy Peralta In 2021

2. Peralta’s added a KEY wrinkle to one of his pitches

Will Sammon, a writer for The Athletic who covers the Milwaukee Brewers, took a deep dive into a grip change for Freddy Peralta’s slider. Entering the season last year, Peralta was excited to try out a slider that he had been working hard on during the offseason. He expected his version of the slider to be that ever so important third pitch in a pitcher’s repertoire. This one was deemed a “bullet slider” with more of a downward motion to it thanks to the intense index-finger pressure.

But he wasn’t seeing the results that he wanted with the new pitch. He struggled in his first and only start of the year on July 26th, going three innings and giving up four runs, three hits and two walks. And his new pitch was barely moving.

Rewind about a month before that game and there was a video circulating via Trevor Bauer’s YouTube channel. This video gave the ins and outs and everything in between in the conversation of gravity and magnus force, which help contribute to the dance party that Bauer’s pitches take part in on the way to the plate. Peralta saw this video and was intrigued but opted to stay with the slider he had been working so hard on.

After a couple months, Peralta had seen enough. He was ready to try Bauer’s slider…and it was one of the best choices he could’ve made. The new and improved slider had more horizontal movement and he changed the grip by putting his index and middle fingers together rather than separated like he had done before. The results were nothing short of amazing.

The Brewers see Peralta’s slider as an established part of his pitch mix now, not an experimental addition.

He went three scoreless innings, striking out six and producing two whiffs in his first game with the revamped pitch against the Chicago White Sox. And from there he never looked back. In the 26 ⅓ innings that followed that appearance, Peralta had a 3.08 ERA with 44 strikeouts with an average horizontal movement never lower than seven inches, compared to the 3.48 inches on average that he was logging before.

Pair this reconstructed slider with a well-above average fastball and 12-6 curveball that has good break and you’ve got an impressive trio of options at your disposal. Look for Freddy Peralta to utilize this pitch more and more and get as comfortable as he can with it.

Oh and he mentioned another pitch potentially being added to the mix. “I don’t know if it’s going to be soon or this season, but I’ve been working on the change-up really hard. It’s important for me to have multiple pitches. I just need to wait until the spring games, keep working on the change-up, see how it is, how confident I feel, how confident the catchers are. Then we’ll have a decision.”

Hitters beware of Freddy Peralta in 2021.

3. Freddy Peralta’s here to stay

The Brewers have team control of Freddy Peralta until 2026 with club options in his last two years. With the swirling rumors of Josh Hader being on the trade block, it’s nice to know that so many of the other quality hurlers out of the bullpen are with the Brewers for the foreseeable future.

And not only did the Crew secure the promising righty for the next handful of years, but they did it for relatively cheap. He’s making around $1.25MM this season with one to two million dollar increases for every new season. The average salary being $3.1MM. Not too shabby for a guy right there with some of the best pitchers in the league in certain departments.

Freddy Peralta has earned every bit of success he’s encountered. He’s been in Milwaukee’s minor league system since 2016 after he was traded from the Mariners in a package for Adam Lind and has bounced up and down from minors to majors multiple times. The attention to detail and pure desire to perfect his craft is nothing but admirable and is just what you look for in a player.

Whether he finds his way back to the starting rotation or stays put in the relief role, he’s a huge commodity for Craig Counsell. I believe it’s time for Freddy Peralta to rudely awaken everybody who’s been sleeping on him in 2021.

Peralta is still just 24 years old and he has an incredibly high ceiling that’s still within reach. With his already strong numbers, addition of a new pitch, and a long time to develop in Milwaukee, Freddy Peralta is an exciting pitcher to have in the clubhouse for years to come.

While he may currently be an overlooked member of the Brewers pitching staff, that could change soon based on his talent, work ethic, and what he added in the offseason.