Veteran outfielder David Peralta opted out of a minor league contract with the Cubs and elected free agency, as indicated on the MiLB.com transaction log. He’ll now be an option for any club seeking some left-handed-hitting and/or corner outfield depth.
The 36-year-old Peralta is a former Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner who’s spent the bulk of his career with the Diamondbacks, for whom he played a pivotal role over the course of nine seasons. From 2014-22, Peralta batted .283/.340/.463 in 961 games and 3728 plate appearances as a member of the D-backs. He belted 110 homers — including a career-high 30 in 2018 alone — and added another 191 doubles and 46 triples for good measure.
By measure of wRC+, Peralta was 12% better at the plate than the average hitter during his Arizona tenure. Couple that with strong overall defensive ratings in the outfield corners, and Peralta was a quietly valuable player for the Snakes for upwards of a decade. The Diamondbacks rewarded his consistency with a three-year, $22MM contract extension heading into the 2020 season, buying out a pair of free-agent seasons in the process.
Arizona wound up trading Peralta to Tampa Bay prior to the 2022 trade deadline, and he’s had subsequent struggles both with the Rays and (in 2023) with the Dodgers. Since leaving Phoenix, Peralta has batted .258/.301/.368 in 602 big league plate appearances.
Peralta inked his minor league deal with the Cubs back in February. As Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote last month, he wasn’t immediately ready for game action, as he was still wrapping up the rehab process from an October procedure to repair the flexor tendon in his left forearm back in October. Peralta got into six games late in spring, going 8-for-18 with a homer, a double and triple, but he opened the season in extended spring training as he wasn’t yet fully cleared to throw from the outfield. He wrapped up a rehab/throwing program and joined the Cubs’ Iowa affiliate on April 11.
In 20 games and 85 plate appearances with Iowa, Peralta has posted a .217/.341/.348 batting line. He’s been dinged by a .232 average on balls in play that’s more than 100 points shy of his career .326 mark in the majors, which has surely played a role in the pedestrian offensive rate stats he’s produced. Peralta’s approach and plate discipline seemingly remain quite sound; he’s walked at a 14.1% clip against just a 15.3% strikeout rate.
Peralta has notable platoon splits in his career, with a .289/.343/.474 slash against righties in his big league career against a .241/.303/.361 line versus fellow lefties. Speculatively speaking, a team with multiple injuries and/or struggles in the outfield (e.g. Giants, Royals, Cardinals) could make some sense for Peralta on another minor league deal, as he’ll likely prioritize signing somewhere with a relatively clear path to a big league opportunity.
He will probably get one last bite of the apple.
Yeah probably. But it wasn’t going to be with the Cubs. They’re stacked in the OF.
Obviously.
I have a feeling Cincinnati is circling the bait..
Angels calling in 3, 2, 1……
Better than Grossman .. bring him to Texas
Another aging outfielder whose best days are behind him. Sounds like a perfect fit for the White Sox. They’ve already cut Pillar and traded Grossman. Peralta has got to be better than Ortega.
He is a better hitter but Ortega can stand in CF.
I was pulling for him to have a last hurrah with the Cubs. Class act.
Too bad he don’t hit righty, though if Benson needs a minor league wake up call, and it appears he does, he might be a good fill in.
Probably makes too much sense to actually happen with this bunch.
There was never a clear path to the Majors with the Cubs, so this is officially not news.
Farhan already has him on speed dial
“How soon can you get here?”
Cards need help in CF, not the corners.
Is that a joke or do you really believe their -0.9 combined WAR at the corners is fine?
Not at all fine. But Noot, Donovan and Burly are all LH hitters. In a lost season they should and will continue to get chances over a 36 year old on a one year deal. Especially against RH pitching.
I’m not kidding myself. This season is a lost cause. Peralta isn’t going to change anything. Play the young guys.
It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me as to why the Cardinals were “hacking” the Astros computers several years ago but apparently Lunhow was the brains of that organization. I’m sure he would gladly take over as GM.
We would gladly have him.
I get the criticism but I think DonO probably expects some amount of bounce back from Nootbar and Donovan based on their last couple seasons. Meanwhile, center field has been a trainwreck for the Cards so far, so I get where he’s coming from.
He’s declining but is absolutely still good enough for a major league bench role somewhere, if not a platoon job.
Since Toronto keeps playing infielders in the outfield, and for some reason do not want to give Lukes a chance, could be a fit there. Definitely more serviceable than Vogelsuck.
Crazy how fast they have already moved on from David Ross.
Grandpa Ross is old news
That’s because David Ross wasn’t very good at managing
With Trout out, the Angels could find some work for him. Moniak isn’t hitting worth beans and has options. Time will tell if Adell’s improvements will stick. Nothing to lose really. There aren’t varying levels of last place so we can’t get worse.
Adell is hitting for some power, that’s it. He’s playing at a 1-2 WAR pace.
Hopefully Adell builds on what he’s got going and doesn’t regress to strikeout king again.
DFA Laureano. We’ll take Peralta in Cleveland
Hope he finds a team that needs him. I still can’t forgive him for his 25ft swinging bunt that ended Drew Smyly’s perfect game last year.
Giants.
I never doubt Peralta. They should make a movie about his life. We love him in AZ, although we know he’s not a good fit with all the outfield depth.
I was genuinely surprised when I heard he signed with the Cubs. I was like where does he think he’s going here? It was a mystery. Even with the Cubs ridiculous schedule of 26 games in 27 days and all 3 OF’s being injured at some point he never would of even sniffed Chicago. Unless he can pitch too. Whoever made that schedule should be fired. No wonder everybody is hurt.
That is my grip with the current “more balanced” schedule. It should be easy but they are killing teams with travel.
Baseball should adopt a block schedule, the entire central goes to the west coast to play the entire west division. By blocking, no team should ever have to play more than 15 straight, you get a travel day and a travel day out.
I haven’t heard anyone complain about the travel schedule, have you? But I’m pretty sure we’d hear plenty of complaints about it if teams were required to spend a month or more playing nothing but away games.
Who has to play a month of away games? 5×3 is 15.
I believe your math is off. Teams now play every other team, including in the other league. So a team in one division playing all of the teams in two other divisions would face ten teams. So a four week road trip, plus travel days. At least that’s what I thought you were suggesting.
Teams play:
52 divisional games
64 out of division games in the same league (3 game series with 4-4 game series so it would be a 16 game road trip)
46 inter league games (2 game series)
You seem to be overcomplicating this by quite a bit. A team playing every other team in another division in both leagues has to play ten teams. Granted, interleague matchups each season are usually hosted by only one of the teams, but they are more often three game than two game series. Either way, a 16-game road trip would probably be way less popular with the players than the current format. But since the players don’t control scheduling I’m going to take a wild guess that teams owners would like long dark periods for their ballparks even less.
That’s the current breakdown so no, I’m not over complicating anything.
The same amount of games get played at home so I don’t really think owners would care but think a little deeper, a 16 game break at their stadium allows for…. Other freaking events. You can host two weekend concerts and still have time to get the field in game shape.
And you don’t like 16 games? It can easily be broken down to 10. Two three game series and two interleague games in the region. It’s actually pretty simple
And they don’t choose to do this… because?
The Freight Train has a pretty cool story- was a pitcher before AZ got him. Anyway he gave us 9 years and played his ass off. Love to add #6 to the outfield wall but it probably won’t happen. Good luck DP , hopefully some team will be glad they grabbed you!
AZ should bring him back for his farewell retirement tour. Let him platoon DH/RF for the remainder of the season. Similar to what Pittsburgh has done with McCutchen. Let the guy retire were they started. It doesn’t happen very often and will be a feel good moment for the fans and organization.
Way to pull on my heart strings.
You absolutely nailed it.
David Peralta doesn’t have too much left in the tank. Bring him home and let him go out with a bang. He deserves it and if he is serious enough to hang up the cleats after the season, why not AZ?
They’d have to be out of the playoff race and trade Joc to do that.
White Sox should be calling!
Didn’t want to be a Cub
Toot toot train ride is coming into the station