Photo via Freddy Peralta - Instagram
Freddy Peralta pitching
Freddy Peralta
As Freddy Peralta worked into the middle innings of another strong outing on Sunday, his fourth in a row with at least five innings pitched and two runs or fewer allowed, Tim Dillard made a significant observation, noting that Peralta was having significant success throwing his changeup and curveball early in counts. The point was correct but may have been understated: Against right-handed batters it’s significant that Peralta was throwing his curve and changeup at all.
Peralta has had the nickname “Fastball Freddy” since his MLB debut in 2018, when he threw the pitch 90 out of 98 times while striking out 13 Rockies and allowing just one hit. He’s since settled into a more normal usage volume with it but still throws it more often than most. Slightly more than 60% of the pitches Peralta has thrown this season have been his four-seam fastball, the fourth-most among 61 MLB pitchers who have faced at least 25 batters this season. As we noted last week, Peralta’s fastball velocity is up a tick this season and makes the pitch slightly more valuable for him.
What might be even more significant for Peralta, however, is what happens when he doesn’t throw his fastball. In 2024 Peralta threw his four seamer to right handed batters 52% of the time, but his secondary offering was almost always the same. About 31% of the pitches Peralta threw to righties in 2024 were sliders. If an opposing righty came to the plate looking for one of those two pitches, they were right about 83% of the time. When they were able to lay off the slider and hunt the fastball, they often did some damage: Peralta gave up 17 home runs in 308 at bats against righties last season (5.5%), as compared to nine in 331 ABs against lefties (2.7%).
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Throwing his Curve
By comparison, Peralta isn’t throwing his slider much at all this season. He didn’t throw it at all on Opening Day and only used it five times in his 104 pitches on Sunday. He’s almost entirely replaced the pitch that used to be his biggest secondary offering against righties but, perhaps more importantly, he hasn’t entirely replaced it with one pitch. He’s throwing his curve, which used to be his fourth pitch, significantly more often this season and he’s also showing righties his changeup, which he used to throw primarily use against lefties.
The samples are still small, but the results have been striking. Last season righties did most of the damage against Peralta, hitting .240 with a .326 on-base and .445 slugging for a .771 OPS that was 150 points higher than his same mark against lefties. In 2025 righties are just 3-for-39 against Peralta for a .077/.143/.256 line and a .399 OPS. All three of those hits against Peralta have gone for extra bases, but even with that Peralta has been one of the game’s top performers against same-handed batters. And he’s certainly had opportunities to face some of the game’s top righty hitters: The list of 16 righty batters he’s faced this season includes three former MVPs and 2024 runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. Those four batters went a combined 0-for-10 against him.
For what it’s worth, Peralta is still almost exclusively a two-pitch pitcher against lefties. Last season Peralta threw his fastball and changeup a combined 80% of the time to opposite-handed batters and this season that number is up to 88%, largely driven by more fastballs. Opposing lefties are also hitting him a little harder, posting a .699 OPS as compared to the .621 mark he had in 2024. Opposing teams often follow the traditional platoon routine and load their lineup with lefties against Peralta (he’s faced more lefties than righties in each of the last three seasons) but this is the first time since 2018 that opposing lefties have actually outhit their righty counterparts against him.
Conventional baseball wisdom says that a starting pitcher needs at least three different offerings to be able to keep hitters off balance across multiple at bats throughout a game. In 2024 Peralta experienced some success by mostly showing opposing batters two pitches (fastball-slider vs righties, fastball-change vs lefties), but this year he’s mixing it up and to this point he’s seeing more success doing so.
