Veteran outfielder David Peralta opted out of a minor league contract with the Cubs and elected free agency, as indicated on the MiLB.com transaction log. He’ll now be an option for any club seeking some left-handed-hitting and/or corner outfield depth.
The 36-year-old Peralta is a former Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner who’s spent the bulk of his career with the Diamondbacks, for whom he played a pivotal role over the course of nine seasons. From 2014-22, Peralta batted .283/.340/.463 in 961 games and 3728 plate appearances as a member of the D-backs. He belted 110 homers — including a career-high 30 in 2018 alone — and added another 191 doubles and 46 triples for good measure.
By measure of wRC+, Peralta was 12% better at the plate than the average hitter during his Arizona tenure. Couple that with strong overall defensive ratings in the outfield corners, and Peralta was a quietly valuable player for the Snakes for upwards of a decade. The Diamondbacks rewarded his consistency with a three-year, $22MM contract extension heading into the 2020 season, buying out a pair of free-agent seasons in the process.
Arizona wound up trading Peralta to Tampa Bay prior to the 2022 trade deadline, and he’s had subsequent struggles both with the Rays and (in 2023) with the Dodgers. Since leaving Phoenix, Peralta has batted .258/.301/.368 in 602 big league plate appearances.
Peralta inked his minor league deal with the Cubs back in February. As Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote last month, he wasn’t immediately ready for game action, as he was still wrapping up the rehab process from an October procedure to repair the flexor tendon in his left forearm back in October. Peralta got into six games late in spring, going 8-for-18 with a homer, a double and triple, but he opened the season in extended spring training as he wasn’t yet fully cleared to throw from the outfield. He wrapped up a rehab/throwing program and joined the Cubs’ Iowa affiliate on April 11.
In 20 games and 85 plate appearances with Iowa, Peralta has posted a .217/.341/.348 batting line. He’s been dinged by a .232 average on balls in play that’s more than 100 points shy of his career .326 mark in the majors, which has surely played a role in the pedestrian offensive rate stats he’s produced. Peralta’s approach and plate discipline seemingly remain quite sound; he’s walked at a 14.1% clip against just a 15.3% strikeout rate.
Peralta has notable platoon splits in his career, with a .289/.343/.474 slash against righties in his big league career against a .241/.303/.361 line versus fellow lefties. Speculatively speaking, a team with multiple injuries and/or struggles in the outfield (e.g. Giants, Royals, Cardinals) could make some sense for Peralta on another minor league deal, as he’ll likely prioritize signing somewhere with a relatively clear path to a big league opportunity.
