Mets manager Carlos Mendoza announces Freddy Peralta as Opening Day starter
Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta throws during a spring training game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
JUPITER, Fla. — Opening Day for the Mets was 27 days away, but manager Carlos Mendoza didn’t bother being coy. He knew exactly whom he wanted dueling the Pirates’ Paul Skenes on March 26.
“He’s our Opening Day starter — Freddy is,” Mendoza said Friday, hours before righthander Freddy Peralta made his spring training debut at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.
And after Peralta’s three perfect innings, including three strikeouts, the verdict very unsurprisingly did not change.
“He’s as advertised,” Mendoza said. “He’s pounding the zone. He’s going to use all his pitches. The life on the fastball, even if it’s 93, 94 on the radar gun, it just plays up. He continues to get swing-and-misses with that pitch. It’s just got so much carry . . . He got his work in and it’s good to see.”
Pitchers generally use the early parts of spring training to tinker and tweak, but Peralta has come out of the gate hot in more ways than one, quickly ingratiating himself into this clubhouse. Former Brewers teammate Devin Williams noted that “this team really fits his personality.”
Added Mendoza: “He’s just a special guy, a special human. He brings that energy and I’m just excited to watch him go out there and compete.”
It’s enough to make onlookers wonder if Peralta, obtained in a trade with the Brewers and in his final year of his contract, already has broached the possibility of an extension.
“No comment,” Peralta said, grinning. Before that, though, he underlined how comfortable he feels in his new home.
“Everything has been amazing,” he said. He’s been “talking [to people] from the bottom to the top, people from the office, everyone. They’ve been easy for me . . . to work with and I’m just happy because I feel like they have my back.”
Peralta gives the Mets a greater sense of security, especially in the context of a 2025 season that was ruined by poor pitching, injuries and short starts.
In the offseason, the Mets explored various avenues of shoring up their rotation before trading for Peralta in January. It cost them prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, but Peralta provides real heft to this pitching corps, particularly if he plants roots in Flushing for years to come.
Though his high walk percentage tends to pump up his pitch count (he averaged 5 1⁄3 innings last year), he’s a durable asset and pitched at least 165 innings in each of the previous three seasons. He also doesn’t struggle appreciably the third time through the order, speaking to his adaptability, pitch sequencing and trust in his off-speed and breaking pitches.
Barring injury, this will be Peralta’s third Opening Day start.
“I’m excited,” he said. “It feels like a commitment to me and for my family, too, to be able to get the ball on the first day.”
He didn’t have to wait all that long for that commitment to come, either.
Mendoza said he informed Peralta “pretty early in camp . . . Everybody was aware and Freddy was pretty pumped.”
His reaction? “ ‘Let’s go, I’m ready to go,’ ” Mendoza said. “He gave me a hug. I can’t wait for that day.”
Melendez makes a mark
MJ Melendez homered twice in the Mets’ 14-3 win over the Cardinals. Melendez, one of many fighting for the open spot in rightfield, hit a solo homer in the fourth and a three-run shot in the fifth, both to the opposite field. He’s also a catcher and can play first base, further bolstering his value.
“I definitely knew there would be some opportunities,” Melendez said. “I just wanted to come in here and be myself . . . I knew I was going to learn a lot coming here. There are very advanced things that I kind of knew about myself, but not how to get the best version of myself, and just learning those things each and every day has been amazing.’’
Melendez has a .215 batting average in four seasons, “but we know the power is there,” Mendoza said.
The Mets liked his “versatility [and] his ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark to all fields,’’ Mendoza said. “It’s another guy who’s in that mix for the rightfield position or an extra spot on the roster.”
Extra bases
Grae Kessinger — an option at shortstop if Francisco Lindor’s surgically repaired left hand doesn’t heal in time for Opening Day — suffered a non-contact left knee injury while running down the first-base line Friday. He’ll get imaging but “it didn’t look too good,” Mendoza said . . . Tobias Myers, the other part of the Peralta trade, will make his first start Saturday.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
