Jacob Misiorowski's dominant Opening Day puts Freddy Peralta trade in a whole new light

The Milwaukee Brewers won 97 games and claimed first place in the National League last season, only to turn around this winter and trade ace Freddy Peralta — the fifth-place Cy Young finisher — to the New York Mets for a couple prospects, Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams.

This was a classic bit of Brewers business. Peralta, in the final year of his deal worth $8 million, was about to become far too expensive for one of the smallest markets in the league. Rather than wait on a free agency departure, Milwaukee turned him into long-term value and planted prized 23-year-old Jacob Misiorowski atop the rotation. The early results are quite positive.

Jacob Misiorowski looks the part of Brewers' new ace

The Miz was pure electricity in Milwaukee's Opening Day showdown with the Chicago White Sox. He pitched five innings, allowing two hits, three walks and only one earned run with 11 strikeouts, a new Brewers Opening Day record. He also recorded a cool 58 percent whiff rate.

Misiorowski became the fastest player in MLB history to earn an All-Star berth last season, with just five starts between his debut and his appearance in the Midsummer Classic. He did not entirely deserve that honor but the hype around his talent was immediate and the league rewarded him for it.

A tall, hard-throwing righty, Misiorowski explodes toward the plate with great extension and nigh-unhittable velocity. He posted a strikeout rate in the 93rd percentile last season, with a 4.36 ERA and 87 Ks through 66.0 innings.

If there's a knock against Misiorowski, it's his command — which was still mildly problematic on Thursday afternoon, although Chicago lacked the firepower to truly take advantage. But when Misiorowski puts his stuff anywhere close to the zone, he's one of the hardest pitchers to hit in baseball. He's only going to get better, too.

The Brewers are the best organization in the sport when it comes to developing and maximizing pitchers. There isn't a Milwaukee fan who shouldn't have confidence in Misiorowski's ability to blossom as a frontline ace moving forward.

Freddy Peralta's poor Mets debut casts trade in new light

While The Miz torched the Southsiders, Milwaukee's former No. 1 was making his debut for the Mets in Queens. It was a much different story: Peralta gave up a leadoff single to Pittsburgh's Oneil Cruz to start the game — a good pitch, better swing situation on a 3-2 curveball falling out of the zone. Then he left one over the heart of the plate for Brandon Lowe, who cranked a home run on the first pitch he saw as a member of the Pirates.

Lowe went on to homer in his next at-bat, too, and Peralta coughed up six hits and four earned runs across five innings of work. He struck out seven and did not relinquish a free base, but Peralta's struggles would be more of a storyline if not for Paul Skenes' unprecedented implosion on the other side and New York's subsequent 11-run outburst to win the day.

This is not reason for Mets fans to panic. Peralta will settle in; there are better outings on the horizon. By that same token, however, fans expecting Peralta to repeat last season's incredible results — a 2.70 ERA and 1.08 WHIP with 204 strikeouts in 176.2 innings — are probably out of luck. For starters, Peralta has never dominated so comprehensively across a full season before. And secondly, the metrics just do not support it: Peralta's expected ERA (3.43) and expected batting average (.206) both exceeded the actual numbers (.193) by a significant margin. He's no stranger to command issues of his own, either. Peralta was awesome in 2025, but he was also lucky. The results this season will stabilize, but also probably regress relative to last season.

Both teams are probably happy with this trade

Today was a huge win for the Brewers and their fans. Misiorowski was on the superstar path last season and it does not seem like he will stray in 2026, if Thursday's performance is any indication. While Peralta's Mets debut was a mild bummer (all the excitement of the victory notwithstanding), you won't find a single New York fan — or executive — ready to rescind the deal. He's the veteran stabilizer the Mets so clearly needed during last season's collapse.

In addition to Misiorowski, the Brewers have Sproat, a top-100 prospect and a pillar of the Peralta return package, who will debut in a couple days. It remains to be seen exactly what the 25-year-old can offer out of the gate, but expectations are naturally high in Milwaukee, where pitching is never not a strength. Jett Williams, the other prospect who came back in the deal, flashed massive upside in spring training and could be with the Brewers' Major League roster before long.

This trade has all the makings of a win-win, if only because the Brewers are uniquely adept at trading stars and not sacrificing wins. Any other team who makes that trade probably earns a wave of bad press, but Milwaukee will probably compete for the NL Central crown (again) and replace Peralta in the aggregate, with Miz and Sproat both key pieces of the equation.

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