Wandy Peralta

Peralta opened the 2021 season with the Giants, and even got some looks as the closer with the club before struggling his way to a 5.40 ERA across eight innings. After being dealt to the Yankees at the end of April, he maintained a 2.95 ERA and ended the campaign with 10 saves + holds-his highest total since 2017. Peralta significantly changed his pitch mix, emphasizing his changeup and sinker while diminishing his slider usage greatly. The result was a spike in his groundball rate to 57.9 percent. Peralta will need to continue to use that recipe to find success, as he has never surpassed a 12.5 K-BB% in his six-year career. Given the amount of contact and free passes he surrenders, Peralta isn't likely to ever see a significant number of saves and also won't strike out enough batters to generate any type of consistent fantasy value without a high-leverage role.

The Giants grabbed Peralta off waivers from the Reds in September of 2019 and Peralta went on to have the best year of his career by ERA and BAA in 2020. Peralta allowed a total of three barrels among 76 batted balls and an 85.6 mph average exit velocity, ranking in the top 10% of the league. Peralta can pump the fastball in to the mid-90s on average, but he does not throw the heater much at all -- the slider and the changeup accounted for two out of every three of his pitches last season. The junk-heavy approach has not led to many strikeouts (21.9 K% in 2020) and walks have held Peralta back throughout his career. Peralta looks like a nice find for San Francisco but not a difference-making find. Don't expect him to break out of the middle innings.

Peralta serves as a prime reminder that the ability to throw hard -- even as a southpaw -- is not a guaranteed recipe for success in the majors. The 28-year-old is armed with a fastball that clocks in at over 95 mph, but he has done little to impress in four big-league campaigns. Peralta doesn't strike out many hitters (18.6 K% last season), exacerbating the impact of serving up hard or medium contact on over 85% of the balls hit against him. Indeed, Peralta gave up an ugly 2.5 HR/9 in 2019, third-worst in the majors among relievers who pitched 30 or more innings. That led to a 6.09 ERA (6.95 FIP) in 39 appearances with the Reds, who placed him on waivers in September. Peralta did pitch better after being picked up by the Giants and was rewarded with a one-year contract for 2020. Pitching in a hitter-friendly park may lead to better numbers, but don't expect Peralta to be a fantasy asset anytime soon.

Peralta is on a trajectory to be out of the majors by the end of 2019. There's not a good predictive metric in his profile. His hard-hit rate has climbed from 23.1% in 2016, to 28.2% in 2017 and then all the way up to 34.4% last year. Opposing batters are swinging less often out of the zone against him and punishing him when he goes in the zone. He just has the profile of a pitcher whose stuff isn't good enough to beat hitters who aren't fooled by him. That's not meant to be the insult that it reads -- it happens to a lot of short relievers in the majors. Pitching is hard, and doing so effectively for an extended period of time is especially hard. Don't look for Peralta to be a source of holds in 2019, let alone a source of saves.

Over the first half of the season, Peralta had a 3.10 ERA, 24.5 strikeout percentage and a 26.0 percent hard hit rate. In the second half, his ERA spiked to 4.88, his strikeout rate plunged to 17.6 percent and his hard-hit rate jumped to 31.2 percent. Peralta's second-half decline mirrored that of the Reds' bullpen, which for two months was one of the better units in baseball, but collapsed under the historic burden placed upon it by the Reds' rickety rotation. When Peralta is going well, he throws off opposing hitters with a plus changeup and a slider that he started to throw more in 2017. With an offseason to rest and adjust, Peralta will likely bounce back and be a reliable lefty specialist, but short-inning relievers frequently burn bright and quickly, and the Reds won't provide too many leads to hold. You're better off looking elsewhere if you're trolling for holds or looking for closers-in-waiting.

Peralta entered 2016 as a fairly unheralded arm, but his performances at Double-A and Triple-A caught the attention of the Reds' brass and earned him a September promotion. While at Double-A Pensacola, the lefty had an impressive 20:3 K:BB in 17.2 innings before ultimately earning a bump up to the highest level of the minors. His control problems resurfaced at Triple-A, as his 5.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 more closely resembled his career rates than his Double-A numbers did, but he was still able to get batters out and worked to a 2.33 ERA. The 25-year-old got shelled once he got called up for his first cup of coffee in the majors, particularly against right-handed hitters, as they hit .400 against the southpaw. He's on the 40-man roster and could get a look in spring training for a bullpen job, but there's little here to get excited about.