Former Brewers' ace Freddy Peralta makes unlikely addition to trophy case after dominant ALCS performance

Tell Freddy Peralta that he would go on to win the ALCS MVP award before the 2026 season began, and his first question would undoubtedly be, "How did I end up in the American League?"

Peralta was traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the New York Mets, who were expecting to win the NL East and contend for a World Series title, back in February, in a deal that landed the Brewers right-hander Brandon Sproat and utility prospect Jett Williams. However, the Mets' disastrous 2026 season led former Brewers' president of baseball operations, David Stearns, to send Peralta to the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline.

The 30-year-old Peralta, who struggled to the tune of a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts with the Mets during the first four months of the season, hit his stride with the AL-best Rays. In 10 regular season starts after the trade deadline, Peralta posted a 3.25 ERA and looked far closer to the All-Star that he was in 2025.

As a result of his late-season resurgence, Peralta became a key piece of the Rays' postseason rotation, where he joined fellow former Brewer, Drew Rasmussen, and veteran right-hander, Nick Martinez. While Peralta has served as the No. 2 starter behind Rasmussen in October, he was deemed not only the most valuable arm on the Rays' ALCS roster, but also the most valuable overall player in Tampa Bay's defeat of the Cleveland Guardians, which earned them a spot in the 2026 World Series. That's right, after last night's victory in Game 6, during which Peralta covered 5.1 innings and allowed just one earned run, the former Brewers' ace was named the ALCS MVP, adding an unlikely piece of hardware to his trophy case.

Freddy Peralta named ALCS MVP as Rays defeat Guardians and advance to World Series to face Brewers

Peralta's ALCS MVP award is not only improbable because the veteran right-hander began the season with a hopeful NL contender, but it's also simply rare for a pitcher to win the award. The last pitchers to be named either the NLCS or ALCS MVP were Jon Lester, who was the co-NLCS MVP for the Chicago Cubs, and Andrew Miller, who was the ALCS MVP for the then-Cleveland Indians, back in 2016. While Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Stephen Strasburg have each won a World Series MVP in the decade since, winning an LCS MVP as a pitcher is a rare feat. Pair that with the fact that Peralta held a 5.37 ERA on August 4, and the former Brewers' ace winning the award becomes even more improbable.

However, as unlikely as the award was for Peralta at various points in the last year, it's hard to argue that the Rays' right-hander wasn't deserving of the honor. Many will argue that Yandy Díaz, who crushed two homers in the six-game series, should have won the award, but each of Díaz's home runs came in the ninth inning and changed the score from 5-3 in favor of the Rays to 7-3. While the similarities between the two homers are certainly odd and each served as a nail in the coffin for the Rays' wins, it's fair to say that they weren't integral to Tampa Bay's series win.

Meanwhile, Peralta's 12.0 innings of one-run ball, which were spread across two starts and one relief appearance, were huge to the Rays' defeat of the Guardians; Tampa Bay won each of the three games Peralta pitched in. For that reason, and the fact that Peralta slightly out-pitched Tampa Bay's ace, Rasmussen, naming the long-time Brewer the ALCS MVP was definitely a justifiable move.

The Brewers are certainly hoping the former fan favorite cools down before the Fall Classic begins on Friday. Peralta will presumably start Game 2 for the Rays on Saturday night at American Family Field, which will be his second time pitching in his former home since the offseason trade. Peralta started a game for the Mets at Am Fam Field on July 20, and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings. He's undoubtedly a different pitcher than he was then, thanks to a series of adjustments the Rays made to his mechanics, but the Brewers' patient offensive approach remains a tough matchup for Peralta, who often struggles with a high pitch count.

In the meantime, Brewers fans can marvel at the fact that Jake Bauers is the 2026 NLCS MVP and Freddy Peralta is the 2026 ALCS MVP. Predicting that before the 2026 season began would have required not only an impressive faith in Bauers and Peralta but also a lack of faith in the Mets, who ultimately became sellers at the trade deadline. It's a reminder of why we watch baseball: you never know what's going to happen.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow