Rockies southpaw Sammy Peralta cleared waivers following his recent DFA and has been assigned outright to their Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been outrighted in the past and will thus have the right to reject this assignment in favor of free agency if he prefers to explore other opportunities.
The 28-year-old Peralta pitched 2 2/3 innings with the Rox prior to his DFA, surrendering three runs on three hits and a pair of walks. He struck out four of the 15 batters he faced. This marked the lefty’s fourth straight season with at least some degree of major league work under his belt. He’s now pitched a total of 48 1/3 major league frames between the Rockies, Angels and White Sox. Peralta carries a 5.40 earned run average, a 17.9% strikeout rate, an 11.4% walk rate and a 39.6% ground-ball rate in that time.
Peralta has pitched in parts of five Triple-A seasons and has a lifetime 4.79 ERA in 229 1/3 innings there. He’s fanned a much stronger 23.2% of opponents at the top minor league level and shown far better command there as well, evidenced by a tidy 7.1% walk rate.
While Peralta has typically been a four-seam/slider/changeup lefty, he began to work more off a sinker last year. He’s never had good velocity, sitting in the 89-90 mph range with both heaters, but this year’s 51.1% ground-ball rate in the minors would be his best since originally moving up to Triple-A as a 24-year-old back in 2022. Peralta’s command in Triple-A took a big step forward with the Angels’ Salt Lake affiliate last year (when he first started ramping up the use of his sinker); he walked only 4.8% of his opponents in 70 2/3 innings. He hasn’t been quite as precise this year, but his 5.7% walk rate is still excellent. Even if he’s not throwing hard or missing bats in droves, Peralta could earn himself another big league look this season if he can continue to post plus ground-ball and walk rates.
