David Stearns first brought Freddy Peralta to the Milwaukee Brewers as a teenager in a trade in 2015.

Now, he’s traded for the right-hander again.

The New York Mets acquired Peralta from the Brewers along with right-hander Tobias Myers on Jan. 21 in exchange for prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat. The final deal was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The Journal Sentinel confirmed talks were in advanced stages.

Peralta, 29, is in the final year of his contract and is coming off an all-star campaign in which he went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA. The Brewers cautiously shopped Peralta all off-season, holding out for what they felt like was the proper return for a top-line starting pitcher.

On its face, it’s an attention-snatching deal from Milwaukee’s perspective, one sure to raise eyebrows in parts of the league. The Brewers are coming off a franchise-record 97-win regular season and were one series away from the World Series. Elsewhere in the division, the Cubs, who were the closest in the NL Central to the Brewers’ heels last year, have made some splashy additions, most notably third baseman Alex Bregman and starting pitcher Edward Cabrera.

It’s not the typical move a team in the Brewers’ position makes. Then again, the Brewers don’t view their position in baseball’s ecosystem as typical.

Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold has repeatedly stated publicly he cannot shy away from dealing away any player because of Milwaukee’s position in the league’s smallest market.

Arnold’s blueprint is to hold onto his best players until the final year before they reach free agency, then shop them earnestly with other teams. This has borne itself out in the recent past, as the Brewers have traded away all-star pitchers Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams over the past four seasons.

This is the constant balance the Brewers feel they must strike in order to remain perennially competitive – being willing to utilize their top players as trade chips in order to restock their cupboard of young talent. In receiving Williams and Sproat, both considered top-100 prospects, they hope to have done so once again.

But just because it’s part of the modus operandi doesn’t mean trading Peralta was an easy decision.

Peralta, more than maybe any of the three marquee pitchers traded before him, has earned status as a franchise pillar, beloved teammate and fan favorite. He has spent the entirety of his eight-year MLB career with Milwaukee, which acquired him on Dec. 9, 2015, from Seattle for Adam Lind in what was the first big move as newly-hired Brewers general manager for Stearns, now president of baseball operations in Queens.

One of only three pitchers in baseball with at least 200 strikeouts each of the past three seasons, Peralta is second in franchise history with 1,153 strikeouts. He was likely to break Yovani Gallardo’s record this season.

But for as good as Peralta’s year was last season – he finished fifth in Cy Young voting – the Brewers are also surely operating from an understanding that his surface numbers don’t quite match some of the underlying data.

His FIP (fielding independent pitching) was 3.64, nearly a run higher than his ERA and right in line with his career mark of 3.66. Peralta’s whiff rate actually declined from 2024, when he finished with a 3.68 ERA in 32 starts, and has been on a downward trend since 2020.

Brandon Woodruff, who accepted a qualifying offer to return to Milwaukee in November, will lead the rotation, but Brewers will try to backfill Peralta’s spot in the rotation with a slew of young arms, including Sproat, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson and Robert Gasser. The team could use Aaron Ashby or DL Hall in a starting role, as well.

Sproat, who made his MLB debut last September and worked four starts for the Mets, came in at No. 81 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list published hours before the trade. Sproat’s best pitch is his likely his slider, which grades out as a plus-plus offering by some analytical models. He also features a heavy sinker that averages 96-97 mph, four-seamer, biting swing-and-miss curveball and changeup.

The 2023 second-round pick was considered to be among the game’s elite pitching prospects following the 2024 season and still is considered a high-upside arm by evaluators, but a decrease in swing-and-miss in Class AAA last year led to Sproat’s stock cooling a bit.

According to Baseball America’s report: “Sproat was the last of the Mets’ talented trio of pitching prospects to reach Queens in 2025 and has one of the deeper arsenals in the system. He works with a robust six-pitch mix and has elite power across his arsenal. While there’s some reliever risk, his ability to make adjustments in Triple-A in 2025 was encouraging.”

Williams, meanwhile, stands at only 5-foot-7 but packs more punch than you’d expect in that frame. His calling cards are an electric power/speed combo as well as defensive versatility that could allow him to play both shortstop and center field.

Williams, 22, dominated Class AA last year, batting .281 with a .477 slugging percentage before a promotion to Class AAA where he struggled a bit more to make consistent quality contact, though he still popped seven homers in 34 games.

The loss of Myers throws a bit of a dent into the Brewers’ starting depth. The 27-year-old right-hander was a breakout rookie for Milwaukee in 2024, pitching to a 3.00 ERA in 27 games and throwing five shutout innings against the Mets in Game 3 of the Wild Card series, but fell out of the rotation last year.

This story will be updated.