Category: Sports News

The Mets have landed a long-coveted ace. 

Only hours after president of baseball operations David Stearns reaffirmed to reporters his desire to address the team’s starting rotation, the Mets acquired All-Star right-hander Freddy Peralta on Wednesday from the Brewers for prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, the club announced.

As part of the deal the Mets also received right-hander Tobias Myers. 

Peralta, who is entering his walk year, pitched to a 2.70 ERA in 33 starts for the Brewers last season, when he finished fifth in the National League Cy Young Award voting after his second career All-Star appearance. 

The 29-year-old Peralta, who arrived to the Brewers in a trade with the Mariners during Stearns’ tenure heading the Brewers front office, gives the Mets the true ace they have lacked since trading Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer during the 2023 season. 

Over the past two seasons, the Mets had hoped Kodai Senga would develop into an ace, but the right-hander was sidetracked by injuries (and ineffectiveness last year that led to him finishing the season at Triple-A Syracuse) leading Stearns to say earlier in the offseason that Senga couldn’t be counted on as a top-of-the-rotation force. 

Myers, a swingman, appeared in 22 games last season (six as a starter) and pitched to a 3.55 ERA. 

Peralta’s key metrics include a hard-hit ball rate of only 34.5 percent, which ranked in MLB’s 90th percentile. Peralta’s strikeout rate of 28.2 percent (despite a fastball that rates only slightly above average) ranked in MLB’s 84th percentile. 

Williams was the Mets’ No. 3 prospect and a possibility for the major league roster at some point this season. Drafted as an infielder, he had shifted into a hybrid role, playing center field in the minors. 

Sproat began last season as the organization’s top pitching prospect, but was supplanted by Nolan McLean as the year progressed. Even so, Sproat debuted for the Mets last September and pitched to a 4.79 ERA in four starts. 

It leaves the Mets with rotation pieces heading to spring training that will include Peralta, McLean, Senga, Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes and David Peterson.

Others in the mix include Christian Scott and Jonah Tong. Scott missed last season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and the rookie Tong debuted for the club last September. 

The Peralta splash occurred only hours after the Mets introduced Bo Bichette at Citi Field. The Mets signed Bichette last week to a three-year contract worth $126 million (that includes two opt-outs) after missing on Kyle Tucker, the top free agent on the market.

Tucker received a four-year deal worth $240 million from the Dodgers, prompting the Mets to pivot to Bichette, who will shift from shortstop to third base. 

Tuesday night the Mets addressed center field by acquiring Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox for Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley.

Robert is deemed a Gold Glove potential center fielder with a high ceiling offensively who has underwhelmed the past two seasons in large part because of injuries. 

Stearns’ overhaul of the roster began in November, when he traded Brandon Nimmo to Texas for Marcus Semien. At the Winter Meetings, the team lost stars Edwin Díaz and Pete Alonso to free agency (to the Dodgers and Orioles) and shortly afterward traded Jeff McNeil to the Athletics for a minor league pitcher. 

In between, the team signed Devin Williams (who will assume the closer’s role) and Luke Weaver for the bullpen. The Mets also signed Jorge Polanco to play first base — a position at which he’s appeared only once in the major leagues — with the idea his powerful switch-hitting bat will help compensate for Alonso’s loss.

The Mets have found their ace, and their president of baseball operations found one in his old stomping grounds.

New York has acquired All-Star pitcher Freddy Peralta from the Brewers in exchange for a prospect package that will include Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat.

The Mets have also received RHP Tobias Myers in the deal. 

Peralta, who turns 30 next summer, is coming off the best season of his career. The veteran right-hander was stellar for the Brewers, posting a personal-best 2.70 ERA with 204 strikeouts across 176.2 innings (33 starts). He also allowed just 124 hits, holding opponents to a .193 average.

The growth potential for Peralta is, without question, enormous. His advanced metrics were elite in 2025, as he ranked well above average in strikeout percentage, whiff percentage, hard-hit percentage, and extension. The results earned him a top-five finish in NL Cy Young voting.

As if his makeup wasn't enough of a selling point, Peralta's services in 2026 won't even break the bank. He's actually one of the best bargains in baseball, slated to earn only $8 million on a club option before reaching free agency next offseason.

The Mets didn't pursue Peralta on a whim. They knew exactly who they were getting -- after all, David Stearns was in the Brewers' front office when they gave the two-time All-Star a five-year contract extension back in 2020.

With a terrific fastball-changeup-curveball mix that induces plenty of whiffs, Peralta has the arsenal to remain one of the league's most reliable pitchers for quite some time. Over the last five seasons (139 starts), he owns a 3.30 ERA with 895 strikeouts -- a laudable rate of 10.9 per nine.

Myers, who will turn 28 in August, has some major league experience as a starter and reliever. In 2024, he posted a 3.00 ERA and a 1.174 WHIP in 27 games (25 starts). 

This past season, Myers made 22 appearances (six starts) and posted a 3.55 ERA while striking out 38 batters across 50.2 innings.

To make room on the 40 Man Roster, RHP Cooper Criswell has been designated for assignment. 

According to both Jon Heyman and Pat Ragazzo, the Mets are in talks to acquire 29-year-old right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta from the Brewers. Ragazzo specifies that Mets prospect Jett Williams would be part of the return going to Milwaukee in a potential deal.

Peralta has spent the entirety of his major league career in Milwaukee, and he’s entering the final season of a seven-year $30 million contract that he signed with Milwaukee ahead of the 2020 season. He’s thrown 165 innings or more in each of the past three seasons, and he was particularly great in 2025. He finished that season with a 2.70 ERA and a 3.64 FIP in 176.2 innings over the course of 33 starts.

Williams has been a consensus top-100 prospect ahead of each of the last three seasons, and the 22-year-old has played shortstop, second base, and center field thus far in his minor league career. He split his 2025 season between Double-A Binghamton, where he spent the majority of the year, and Triple-A Syracuse, and he hit .261/.363/.465 with 17 home runs and 34 stolen bases in 43 attempts.

Joel Sherman adds that the Brewers have asked about Mets pitching prospect Brandon Sproat and that 27-year-old right-handed pitcher Tobias Myers would be coming to the Mets in the potential trade.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee was detained at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night due to a paperwork issue, agent Scott Boras told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Boras told the paper Lee's detainment was "not anything political or anything like that" and Lee was released later Wednesday evening, USA TODAY Sports' Bob Nightengale reported.

“We are working politically and with immigration and the Giants to get verifications,” Boras had told the Chronicle. “I’m not sure what was lacking but it was something with the proper paperwork. I think he just forgot one of the documents.”

The Giants told the Chronicle they were working to resolve the issue, as was California Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office.

Lee was arriving back in California from South Korea ahead of a Giants fan event set to be held on Saturday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Giants' Jung Hoo Lee detained at LAX: What we know

The Dodgers finalized their deal with Kyle Tucker on Wednesday, signing the outfielder to a four-year contract worth $240 million.

Tucker gets a $64 million signing bonus as part of the contract, $54 million of which will be paid this February 15 and the other $10 million on February 1, 2027, per Beth Harris and Ronald Blum of Associated Press, with the following annual salaries.

2026: $1 million
2027: $55 million
2028: $60 million player option
2029: $60 million player option

A total of $30 million of the salaries are deferred — $10 million each year from 2027-29 — which is not uncommon among Dodgers contracts of late. Each year’s $10 million deferred salary will be paid out at $1 million per year every December 1 from 2036-45, again per AP.

Tucker is one of 10 Dodgers with deferred money in their contract, with a total of $1.0945 billion scheduled to be paid out between 2028-47. Shohei Ohtani’s $680 million deferred — 97 percent of his 10-year contract — is the outlier, with deferred money in the other nine contracts ranging between 12.5 percent (Tucker) and 36.3 percent (Blake Snell) of the total contract guarantee.

The deferrals in Tucker’s contract reduce the average annual value from $60 million to $57,195,945 per year.

Tucker has two opportunities to opt out of the contract — after either the 2027 or 2028 seasons. The Dodgers typically don’t include opt-outs, but given that Tucker was also being heavily pursued by the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets, including the ability for Tucker to leave potentially after two seasons was a way for the Dodgers to sweeten the deal.

“In two years, we’ll know a lot more about a lot of things than we do know, and just because he opts out doesn’t mean that we won’t be there to try to sign up,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “In any deal you’d prefer to to have an opt-out. Generally speaking, I think they’re very poorly priced in the market, which is why we have avoided them by and large. In this case, it just made sense for a confluence of reasons.”

Because Tucker declined a qualifying offer from the Chicago Cubs in November, the Dodgers will forfeit a pair of picks in the 2026 MLB Draft. Having already ceded their second and fifth-round selections for signing fellow qualifying-offer free agent Edwin Díaz in December, the Dodgers for signing Tucker will forfeit their third and sixth-round picks this July. That will likely leave the Dodgers with a draft pool of something like $4 million or just under, which would be their lowest in the 15 years of the draft slotting system.

“The depth of our system put us in a position where, while the cost is still meaningful, it wasn’t as significant. We have a very strong system up top,” Friedman said. “But even more than that, I think the depth of our system allows us this one year to have our food budget for the draft meetings exceed our signing bonuses. It’s not great by any means, but just trying to balance that with doing everything we could to put ourselves in the best position to win a championship in 2026.”

San Francisco Giants star Jung Hoo Lee was detained by US Customs and Border Protection at LAX on Wednesday over a “paperwork issue,” his team confirmed Wednesday night.

“Earlier today,” the Giants said in a statement to the Associated Press, “Jung Hoo Lee experienced a brief travel issue at LAX due to a paperwork issue.

“The matter was quickly clarified with the appropriate authorities, and he has since been cleared to continue his travel. We appreciate the professionalism of all parties involved.”

Lee was stopped by the feds after flying into the Los Angeles airport from South Korea, the San Francisco Standard reported.

The 27-year-old outfielder was traveling ahead of a scheduled appearance at a Giants FanFest event on Saturday, according to the report.

Lee’s agent, Scott Boras, told The Post on Wednesday night everything “is now resolved” and the baseball player continued on to Arizona following the delay.

San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office had reportedly been working with federal officials to secure his release prior to the matter getting sorted out.

Spring Training for the Giants begins in Scottsdale in three weeks.

Lee signed a six-year deal with the Giants in December 2023 worth $113 million.

In his first season in San Francisco, Lee — who previously starred in the KBO before joining the MLB — was limited to just 37 games due to injury.

This past season, he was able to play in 150, and he recorded a .266 batting average with eight home runs, 55 RBI and 10 stolen bases.

Bo Bichette reached the 11th inning of Game 7 of the World Series last season with the Blue Jays, but fell short of a championship ring.

The sting is still real.

“This is probably helping,” Bichette said Wednesday at Citi Field, where he was introduced as the new Mets third baseman. “To be that close, you never know when you’re going to get that opportunity. But I think this team has an opportunity to let me get there.”

Bichette, 27, arrived on a three-year deal worth $126 million that includes opt-outs after the first two seasons.

He brings an authoritative right-handed bat to a lineup that subtracted Pete Alonso, who accepted a $155 million offer over five years from the Orioles.

Last year, Bichette posted a .311/.357/.483 slash line with 18 homers and 94 RBIs in 139 games before missing the final three weeks of the regular season (he returned for the World Series) with a left knee sprain.

The question isn’t so much what Bichette will bring offensively — he’s posted an OPS of at least .800 in six of his seven major league seasons — but whether he can adapt to his new position, third base.

Accompanied by his family, which included his father Dante — a former outfielder with the Brewers, Angels and Rockies, Reds and Red Sox — Bichette said he expects to succeed in the transition from shortstop (he also played second base in the World Series).

“It’s going to take work to be good at something and I’m willing to put in that work and we’ll get after it,” Bichette said. “I’m already getting after it. But we’ll get after it more when I get down to Port St. Lucie.”

The revamped Mets infield also includes Marcus Semien at second base with Jorge Polanco at first base. Both are also former shortstops.

“I think there’s probably going to be a lot of days this season where we are playing four shortstops on the infield, and that’s a pretty distinct advantage,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “I definitely think there’s going to be a learning curve. I’m not trying to dismiss that at all.

“We’re probably going to make a mistake or two, but we’re also going to have an elite range around the infield and that’s pretty exciting.”

Bichette was close to accepting an offer from the Phillies — the team’s president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski called it a “gut punch” to lose him. But Stearns downplayed the angle of the Mets stealing a player from a top division rival.

“I understand that fans find that satisfying,” Stearns said. “I think we need to make sure we are acquiring players, and especially at acquisitions of this magnitude, that we are acquiring players that fit what we want to do, not remove them from another team.”

The Mets filled another hole this week by acquiring center fielder Luis Robert Jr. in a trade with the White Sox for Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley. Stearns struck again Wednesday night, landing ace Freddy Peralta in a trade with the Brewers.

Stearns was asked if he could envision adding another piece to the lineup.

“I would say I feel good about where our position grouping is,” Stearns said. “But at this point in the offseason you can never predict what is going to happen. Different things emerge. We’re not going to close the door on anything.”

Bichette indicated he’s communicated multiple times in recent days with Semien, his former teammate with the Blue Jays. The 35-year-old Semien arrived in a November trade with Texas for Brandon Nimmo.

“[Semien] is a good one, he showed me the ropes, he’s a hard worker, he’s all business,” Bichette said. “He’s a competitor. He was a great mentor for me and I’m sure that in some ways I will still look up to him.”

Semien hasn’t visited Citi Field since his trade to the Mets and had a question for Bichette.

“He asked me what the clubhouse looks like and I had good reviews,” Bichette said.

The Mets and White Sox were in contact for a long time. 

New York showed interest in dynamic center fielder Luis Robert Jr. ahead of last year’s deadline, but Chicago ultimately decided to hold onto him and exercise his club option. 

Talks reignited this winter with the Mets still in search of outfield help, and the two sides were finally able to come to terms on an agreement on Tuesday night. 

In exchange, New York sent Luisangel Acuña and RHP Truman Pauley to Chicago.

While there are some red flags in his profile, the 28-year-old Robert brings an intriguing change of scenery candidate into the everyday centerfield role in Flushing.

For the White Sox, the deal not only opens up some financial flexibility, but it also adds another intriguing young piece in Acuña to their up-and-coming roster. 

The 23-year-old is someone GM Chris Getz says they’ve been tracking for a long time.  

“It really is about being able to bring in Acuña,” Getz told reporters Wednesday. “We’re talking about a player that comes with five-plus years of control. One of the younger, more exciting players in our game who hasn’t really gotten a runway at the major league level. 

“I know over in New York, they did not want to get rid of him, that’s because of how valuable he can be with a team. Now, he was on a roster that didn't really allow him to show what he could do on a regular basis, and we're going to be able to provide that."

Acuña showed flashes of that upside the White Sox value, but he was ultimately never able to carve out a consistent everyday role with the crowded infield in the Big Apple. 

He has just 13 XBH’s and a .640 OPS over his first 214 big-league at-bats.

The youngster wasn’t going to receive that opportunity again with the Mets adding Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette this winter, but now he’ll get his shot in Chicago.