How Worried Should Padres Be About A Potential Wandy Peralta Opt Out?

[Randy Holt]

There's a strange perception that exists around San Diego Padres relief pitcher Wandy Peralta in that he doesn't carry the discernible value of some of his relief corps counterparts. And while that may be valid to an extent, it also oversimplifies his role for the group. To say nothing of what his potential departure could mean to the staff at large. 

Similar to his bullpen comrade Robert Suárez, Peralta carries a player option in his contract ahead of the 2026 season. There's a somewhat unique structure, too, in that he's able to exercise said option to reach free agency before both next season and in 2027. Each opt-in carries a price tag of $4.45 million. But then you circle back to that perception. 

It's assumed that a Suárez exercise of his option would be a net negative for the Padres. He's been one of the more crucial closers in the sport, and it's somewhat assumed that if he were to remain in San Diego, that could allow the Padres to deploy Mason Miller as a starter rather than shifting him into a ninth-inning role. There's a certain level of complexity associated with what declining his option could mean for the team, whether that complexity is positive or negative. No such association exists with Peralta. But should it? 

Peralta is perceived as a mid-inning bullpen arm. The perception there is likely accurate given the leverage distribution. In high leverage situations, the innings pitched count in 2025 reads, in order, Suárez (29.2 IP), Jason Adam (21.2), Jeremiah Estrada (18.2), and Adrian Morejon (15.2). In fact, you'd have to work through at least two starting pitchers before you got to Peralta on the list, at just 6.2 high-leverage innings. So, yes, he's a mid-inning guy that you're not necessarily utilizing in the seventh, eighth, or ninth innings. 

However, that perception also fails to acknowledge the following: 

There's plenty to scoff at if you're making an argument as to the value that Peralta brings to the Padres' group of relievers. His fastball velocity is just okay, he doesn't strike out opposing hitters, and he's had his issues with walks. His expected metrics don't appear particularly impressive, despite a 3.14 ERA and 3.62 FIP, each of which is his second-best output since a career-best 1.0 fWAR in 2022 with the New York Yankees. 

But then you get into some of the contact metrics, and it starts to become a little bit more notable. Peralta can get a hitter to expand the zone, and he can generate some swing-and-miss. He was adept at limiting barrels and quality contact, too, with a ton of that contact finding its way onto the infield grass. His groundball rate was six percent better than Morejon's, who finished with the second-highest rate among bullpen regulars. And there's an interesting usage change that can likely take some credit for that: 

The usage is indicative of the type of results Peralta was able to get in '25. He generated a 52.5 percent groundball rate with the sinker and was up in the high 60s with his changeup, which took on the form of his most-utilized secondary offering rather than his primary pitch as it had been in the years prior. And while there wasn't much to speak of in the whiff game with that sinker, the changeup (36.9 percent) and slider (41.7 percent) did plenty of work on that side. 

If we're looking for an explanation of why the strikeout rate was low, considering the high rates of swing-and-miss, it's likely due to the fact that Peralta threw his sinker 36.8 percent of the time with two strikes. That's a 12 percent jump for that pitch in two-strike counts. So it's fairly clear that it's not about generating punchouts for Peralta but just getting outs as a reliever. 

And there's a lot of value in that. Leverage relievers are crucial to team success, especially in October. It's why the Padres were able to keep games close against the Chicago Cubs despite little contribution from their offense. But you also need a bridge to such relievers. We don't know what shape the rotation will take. We do know that Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, and, maybe, JP Sears will be involved in the rotation mix. So there's going to be a need for relief help in the middle innings. And what Peralta brings, in terms of skill set, isn't something easily duplicated, especially at that entirely reasonable price for each of the next two seasons. 

It's because of that that we could see Peralta explore a declining of the option in order to test the market and get a bit of a raise. The Padres, though, should be hoping that Peralta is in their bullpen rotation again next season, as he's a needed presence for exactly the type of situations in which we saw him in 2025.

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