Brewers fans should be skeptical of Dodgers president's Freddy Peralta downplay

Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the Los Angeles Dodgers, who just recently shocked the baseball world by adding Kyle Tucker on a $60 million annual salary, were also interested in acquiring Freddy Peralta from the Milwaukee Brewers. The report rightfully sent Brewers fans and non-Dodger baseball fans as a whole, for that matter, into a tizzy.

With a potential lockout looming, the Dodgers, whose recent success is in part due to their ability to spend two, three, or even four times the amount that other MLB teams spend on their payroll, are seemingly not content with their All-Star-filled roster and therefore need to add Peralta to insulate them from one of their other four aces going down with an injury. Unfortunately, while their reported pursuit of Peralta came across as greedy to most of the baseball world, the scary truth is that with one of, if not the best farm systems in baseball, the Dodgers are set up well to put together a trade package that would be difficult for Matt Arnold and the Brewers' front office to turn down.

As a result, the possibility of the Dodgers acquiring the Brewers' ace during the offseason that directly succeeded them sweeping Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series started to look very real. However, just moments ago during, ironically, Tucker's introductory press conference, Los Angeles' President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, who happens to be a close personal friend of Arnold, claimed that the Dodgers are no longer looking to make additions to their starting rotation. The report comes from Dodgers' insider Doug McKain via the social media platform X.

Brewers fans should be skeptical that the Dodgers are supposedly no longer interested in Freddy Peralta

Logically, Friedman's answer makes sense for a few reasons. First, the Dodgers simply do not need more starting pitching. With a staff that already includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, and a whole host of talented young arms including Emmet Sheehan, simply finding a spot for another starter is difficult. Obviously, if Los Angeles were to add someone like Peralta to their rotation, they would certainly be able to find a spot for the 2x All-Star, but the fact remains that the Dodgers' rotation picture is already crowded.

Secondly, even if the Dodgers were interested in Peralta, that's not something Friedman has to disclose to the media. Doing so can only hurt his leverage in trade talks, and Dodgers fans won't be upset that their team, which is already chock-full of All-Star pitchers, isn't seeking out another addition.

Most likely, Friedman is telling at least a partial truth. They are not in the market for starting pitching unless the perfect deal presents itself, and that's unlikely to come from the Brewers, who hold all of the leverage in the Peralta trade talks.

However, the baseball world has been fooled by the Dodgers one too many times to believe that they won't surprise everyone and pull off the move no one expects. Such a reality has already occurred this offseason. The Dodgers' front office went into the offseason telling practically everyone that it would be a quiet winter in Los Angeles and that the team wouldn't see many impactful additions. Then they went out and made Edwin Díaz the highest-paid reliever of all time (by average annual salary) and gave Tucker a $60 million deal. In both cases, it looked like each player was headed to the New York Mets, but seemingly from out of nowhere, the Dodgers swooped in and signed them.

Now, with the Mets seemingly the favorites to land Peralta -- an unconfirmed report surfaced earlier today saying that an actual offer has been submitted from Milwaukee's end -- a last-minute offer from the Dodgers that the Brewers simply can't turn down shouldn't be ruled out. More than likely, Peralta isn't headed to Los Angeles, but just because Friedman says they are done making additions to their starting rotation, doesn't mean he's necessarily telling the truth.