Milwaukee Brewers: Freddy Peralta is Looking Great in Winter Ball

Freddy Peralta could provide the Milwaukee Brewers with a huge boost in 2020 and it looks like he’s on the right track with some dominating performances in Winter Ball.

Last season the Milwaukee Brewers made the decision to roll with their trio of young starting pitchers and as good as Brandon Woodruff was, we saw Corbin Burnes implode, and Freddy Peralta battle inconsistency.

While there was the beautifully crafted eight scoreless innings against Cincinnati in Peralta’s second outing of the season, there were also plenty of times he couldn’t make it past the fourth inning either. Ultimately, he had a brief stint in the minors  followed by relegation to the bullpen. And more inconsistency.

In total for 2019, Peralta would pitch in 85 innings while recording a 5.29 ERA, a FIP of 4.18, and a 1.46 WHIP. However, on the flip side he also struck out 12.2 batters per nine innings pitched and gave up a walk just 9.7 percent of the time.

You certainly don’t have to watch much of Peralta to realize that the talent and potential are there, but most will agree that he still needed to develop more confidence in his curve ball as well as a third pitch, in general.

Let’s just say they don’t call him “Fastball Freddy” for nothing. Since making his debut with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2018, he’s thrown a fastball on over 78 percent of his pitches. The second most was his curve at just under 20 percent, and then very rarely we saw a change-up. When he’s on, he’s on, but at the big league level to be a consistently effective starting pitcher, having a reliable second and third pitch is a must.

So as many big leaguers do, Peralta has been playing winter ball, trying to perfect his curve while also developing that third pitch. And it appears to be going extremely well.

In five outings that have covered 20 innings, Peralta has allowed just six hits, only three walks, while striking out a whopping 34 batters during that span for the Toros del Este of the Dominican Winter League.

And in his most recent outing, according to Victor Baez who is the commentator and press director for the Toros, Peralta was incorporating a slider with his curve ball, looked great mixing his pitches, and oh yeah, he was consistently hitting 98 mph with his fastball. Certainly great signs for both Peralta and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Despite what has been a hectic offseason up to this point for Milwaukee, there are still a few question marks surrounding the starting rotation. But if Peralta can build upon the success that he is having in winter ball, it will go a long way towards helping the Brewers reach their third straight postseason appearance.