Brewers rumors: Five contenders remain very interested in Milwaukee’s ace

Freddy Peralta's market hasn't changed much over the course of the offseason, even if other deals around the league have shifted the asking price for the Milwaukee Brewers' incumbent ace.

He's still one of the best available pitchers on the market, and perhaps the best one now that Dylan Cease has signed. Thus, it should be no surprise that The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported that five big-market clubs remain interested in Peralta: the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Atlanta Braves.

Does anyone else smell a bidding war cooking?

Brewers can incite massive bidding war for Freddy Peralta among interested big-market teams

Simply put, the Mets and especially the Dodgers should be off the table in any trade talks. Milwaukee might be worse without Peralta, but after a 97-win season, they should still fancy themselves as contenders in a wide-open National League Central. Handing one of the best pitchers in the league to either of the two highest-spending teams in the NL would surely lead to some sort of painful karmic retribution in the postseason.

Still, keeping the Mets in the running could do wonders for a bidding war, particularly if the Brewers want to go back to the Yankees well after clobbering them in the Devin Williams trade last winter.

You can be sure that the Bronx Bombers — who have done nothing all offseason besides sign Paul DeJong to a minor-league deal — are desperate to add at least one marquee name, particularly if they lose out in the Cody Bellinger sweepstakes. If they feel the pressure of the Mets or Red Sox in Peralta's trade market, there's a good chance Matt Arnold can coax a fortune out of them.

Of course, having five high-profile teams in the bidding should do wonders for the Brewers' asking price regardless, especially since four are division rivals. The Red Sox's interest goes back to the very beginning of the offseason, while the Mets and Braves desperately need a frontline starter to pair with their incumbent aces (Nolan McLean and Chris Sale, respectively).

It still feels the ideal outcome to this whole saga is the Brewers wising up and retaining Peralta (and, heaven forbid, actually extending a star pitcher for once), but amidst a very quiet offseason in Milwaukee, it's beginning to feel more and more likely that the 29-year-old righty will be dealt for a haul. If that's the case, the Crew have the right assortment of teams to get a bidding war started... just as long as the Dodgers don't win it.