The 2025 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings are officially underway, and with it, the Atlanta Braves' offseason, with the event typically serving as an unofficial start to the winter action. The annual gathering of baseball's front-office executives often signals teams starting to get an idea of the tone of the offseason and chasing potential blockbuster targets.
With this in mind, there is no question that the Braves and general manager Alex Anthopoulos should use the next days to focus on finding a potential deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for star pitcher Freddy Peralta, who has been one of the biggest names involved in ongoing trade rumors.
MLB Winter Meetings Are Perfect Time for Braves to Start Freddy Peralta Trade Talks
Peralta is on an expiring deal and coming off a solid season, going 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA across 33 starts in his first MLB All-Star campaign since 2021. The right-hander would be the perfect final piece to Atlanta's rotation, one that gives full confidence that Atlanta is going to have an advantage against any roster that steps in its way. Trading for Peralta gives you a prospective rotation of Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, and Peralta.
If these five are at their best, there isn't a rotation in the league currently that has a chance to match up. With this in mind, the Braves must use the MLB Winter Meetings as a chance to gauge the possibility of landing Peralta before spring training. If a trade can happen sooner, even better.
If the Braves were to add Peralta, all of a sudden, they could put Grant Holmes and Reynaldo Lopez back into the Braves' bullpen. Add in the re-signing of Raisel Iglesias and the expected return of Joe Jiménez, and the pen is in far better shape. The Braves could also opt to go with a six-man rotation after the injury issues of the past two seasons. Regardless, adding Peralta now takes away a sense of desperate urgency and allows you to sit back and allow moves to come to you the rest of the offseason.
Peralta fits in perfectly with Atlanta's approach to the offseason and gives you a core that can instantly step in and compete. Such a talented rotation can carry the offense even if last year's struggles continue. While ideally, the Braves are going to utilize the next three months to fix the lineup as well, the point remains that adding Peralta would bring them a lot closer to the World Series conversation.
He's also only commanding an $8 million salary next season before hitting free agency, per Spotrac. Not only would trading for Peralta not break the bank, but a deal in the near future would give the Braves a head start on locking him down, rather than having to compete with other suitors next winter.
The meetings will end on Wednesday, which should motivate Atlanta's front office to give Milwaukee's braintrust a call sooner rather than later. The 2025 campaign was a disaster, and trading for Peralta would send a message to Braves fans that Anthopoulos & Co. are serious about ensuring that won't happen again.