How the Freddy Peralta trade tree links back to the Toronto Blue Jays

Along with former Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta is now a member of the New York Mets. The Mets went on a frenzy last week signing and traded for players to bolster their roster, including getting one of the prized starting rotation options on the trade market.

The Mets sent back the Brewers a 22-year-old prospect named Jett Williams, and 25-year-old right handed pitcher Brandon Sproat who made his MLB debut in 2025. An interesting tidbit came out of this deal that concerns the Blue Jays and it's that Peralta was originally dealt to the Brewers for former Blue Jay Adam Lind.

How the Freddy Peralta trade tree links back to the Toronto Blue Jays

Let's rewind the clock back to November of 2014. The offseason had just begun and the Blue Jays were coming off a season in which they very well could have earned a playoff berth. Sitting with a 60-50 record on the day of the trade deadline they were in the Wild Card spot and only 1.5 games back of the AL East leading Baltimore Orioles.

But GM Alex Anthopoulos decided to mostly stand pat, executing just one trade (relief pitcher Liam Hendriks and Erik Kratz sent to Kansas City in exchange for Danny Valencia) and the Blue Jays wore down. A lack of reinforcements allowed Baltimore to pull away, while with only one Wild Card spot up for grabs at the time, the Oakland Athletic's snatched it from the Blue Jays.

The A's bolstered their pitching staff, at a high price, getting Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the Cubs for, top prospects at the time, Addison Russell and Billy McKinney in early July. Then the A's got Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes from the Red Sox for Yoenis Cespedes at the deadline. The Blue Jays finished at 83-79, third in the division and 13 games back of the Orioles.

So that offseason, Anthopoulos began to remake the Blue Jays. The moves that stand out from that winter include getting Josh Donaldson from Oakland, and signing Russell Martin. But there was a move right at the beginning of the offseason that was looked as an overpay at the time, but turned out to be just fine in the long run when Anthopoulos traded Lind to the Brewers in exchange for Marco Estrada.

Lind hit a career high 35 home runs in 2009 while slashing .305/.370/.562 with an OPS of .932 and a 3.9 bWAR. Over the next three seasons though he battled some injuries and never brought the same level of power and consistency he had during that '09 campaign. He put up respectable numbers, but fell short of maybe those lofty expectations between 2010 and 2013.

In 2014 his power was way down, hitting just six home runs in 96 game, but he also slashed .321/.381/.479 with an OPS of .860 while playing in mostly a platoon role, getting very few starts against lefties, and at the end of the season he was extremely vocal about how Toronto's season ended. So Toronto made the deal for Estrada who wasn't looked at as a rotation option, but more of a swing man role.

Estrada had a career 4.23 ERA in 154 games including 71 starts over his seven year MLB career. He had some decent numbers and while he didn't walk a ton of guys, he wasn't an overpowering strikeout pitcher either. But it ended up being a trade that would work out for both sides. Estrada gave the Blue Jays two really good season's, including getting named to the All-Star team in 2016.

He was worth 7.4 bWAR in the two Blue Jays' playoff years in '15 and '16 pitching to a 3.30 ERA giving the Blue Jays 357 innings pitched with a WHIP of 1.081. He became the prototypical middle of the rotation arm for those Blue Jays squads and was instrumental in helping the Blue Jays reach the ALCS in back-to-back season's.

He didn't have a great final two years with Toronto in 2017 and '18 but he still ate a ton of innings for a team that was starting to enter their rebuild mode. As for Lind, he gave the Brewers one really good season, producing a 3.6 bWAR while hitting 20 home runs and slashing .277/.360/.460. But the best part for the Brewers was sending Lind to Seattle for a package of prospects including the guy who would develop into an ace; Peralta.

On December 9, 2015 the Brewers received Carlos Herrera, Daniel Missaki and Freddy Peralta in exchange for Adam Lind. While Herrera and Missaki never made it out of the minors, Peralta sure did. In eight seasons with the Brewers, Peralta has produced a 14.9 bWAR throwing 931 innings with 1153 strikeouts. He's made two All-Star teams, pitched to a 3.59 ERA, 1.132 WHIP and has three straight 200+ strikeout seasons.

It's safe to say that's a trade the Mariners would like a do-over on as Lind hit just .239/.286/.431 with 20 home runs in his lone season in Seattle. As for the timeline to whether the Blue Jays could have had Peralta? That's tricky.

Peralta signed as an 17-year-old amateur free agent with the Mariners in April of 2013 and was traded in December of 2015 when he was 19. The Blue Jays were looking for an MLB impact arm when they moved Lind, while the Brewers were looking for prospects. So it's unlikely Peralta was ever on the table in a Blue Jays - Mariners - Adam Lind trade discussion.

However, now that he has been traded to the Mets, who also have Bichette, former Blue Jay Marcus Semien and Juan Soto, who was highly targeted by Toronto as a free agent, Blue Jays can look at that team in Queens and think of what could have been in another timeline.