NEW YORK (AP) — Freddy Peralta is willing to consider a multiyear contract with the Mets before reaching free agency.
But he wants to get settled in New York first.
“I’ve got to see around, share time with my teammates and think about different ideas, learn about everybody, coaches (and) the organization in general,” the All-Star pitcher said Tuesday. “And then we can see.”
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns expressed a similar sentiment after acquiring Peralta in a trade with Milwaukee last week, saying he would definitely allow the right-hander an adjustment period before potentially broaching a long-term arrangement.
The 29-year-old Peralta is due to make $8 million this season after the Brewers picked up their club option on a deal he signed in 2020. He can become a free agent following the World Series.
So next winter, Peralta could be in line for a very lucrative contract as one of the most attractive players on the open market. And with only one year of club control remaining, he couldn’t fully ignore the chatter about a potential trade from small-market Milwaukee this offseason — or resist connecting the dots that made a move to the Mets a likely outcome.
“I was trying to avoid that but I couldn’t because family members (and) everybody (was) talking about it all the time,” Peralta said on a Zoom call with reporters. “But I had a feeling that I was coming to the Mets.”
His hunch came to fruition last Wednesday, when New York sent pitcher Brandon Sproat and touted prospect Jett Williams to the Brewers for Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers.
The deal reunites Peralta with Stearns, who ran Milwaukee's front office from 2015-23. Stearns pulled off one of his biggest moves with the Brewers on Dec. 9, 2015, when he acquired Peralta, then a 19-year-old who hadn’t pitched above rookie ball, from the Seattle Mariners for veteran first baseman/designated hitter Adam Lind.
“I knew that something was going to happen and it was a little hard at the same time, because I spent my whole career in Milwaukee and there’s a lot of great memories over there,” Peralta said. “But this is a business and anything can happen. I was prepared for the moment. And being honest, I’m really happy to be here in New York and be a member of the Mets organization.”
Peralta’s arrival gives New York a much-needed frontline starter and appears to cap a hectic offseason for the retooled Mets, who parted ways with lineup mainstays Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo as well as star closer Edwin Díaz.
New York's rotation wore down last season, when the Mets had the best record in the majors through June 12 but missed the playoffs.
Peralta made the National League All-Star team and finished fifth in Cy Young Award balloting last year, when he led the NL with 17 wins and also set career bests with a 2.70 ERA in 176 2/3 innings over 33 starts. He struck out 204 batters, six shy of his single-season high established in 2023.
Peralta and Dylan Cease are the only major league pitchers to make at least 30 starts and record at least 200 strikeouts in each of the last three seasons. The Mets haven’t had a pitcher make 30 starts in consecutive campaigns since Steven Matz and two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom did so in 2018 and 2019.
Kodai Senga, who had 202 strikeouts as a rookie in 2023, is the lone New York pitcher with a 200-strikeout season since 2019.
Converted reliever Clay Holmes led the Mets with 12 wins, a 3.53 ERA and 31 starts last season, when only Holmes, Senga and David Peterson reached 100 innings for New York.
“I think that’s the No. 1 important thing for me — to be healthy, to be ready every five days to take the ball and go and pitch and be there for the team,” Peralta said. “That’s what I have on my mind all the time — get the necessary work with the trainers in the weight room, mentally with the pitching coaches, just to protect myself and try to be there every five days. Because I know when you have 30 starts, ideally 30-plus starts, something good is going to be on the line.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
FILE - New York Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns responds to questions during a news conference about MLB trade deadline deals, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)
FILE - Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Freddy Peralta walks to the dugout after the top of the fifth inning in Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oct. 14, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — As snow from a massive storm began to fall in Bangor, Maine, on Sunday night, six people who had stopped to refuel a Paris-bound luxury jet prepared for takeoff. None would survive the crash that followed, the cause of which remains unknown.
A departing plane ahead of them radioed to the tower that visibility wasn’t great and they chose not to fly, but the winds were relatively mild and the snow, powdery and fine in the near-zero temperatures, had accumulated only a dusting. Airport officials say the plane went through the standard de-icing process and got in line with other jets that took off safely.
The plane, however, crashed during takeoff, leaving the jet burning and inverted on the tarmac, killing everyone on board. Among them a corporate pilot who was recently hired at the Texas law firm linked to the plane, and an event planner who had worked with the firm on previous occasions.
Lakewood Church in Houston, run by Joel Osteen Ministries, confirmed on Tuesday that longtime employee Shawna Collins, 53, was among those killed. Collins’ social media posts show her work organizing parties and events in Italy, Hawaii and elsewhere, for clients that included Arnold and Itkin Trial Lawyers, the Houston law firm whose co-founder is listed on the plane’s registration.
“Everybody loved her. She just had that kind of personality,” church spokesperson Donald Iloff Jr. told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The family of pilot Jacob Hosmer, 47, confirmed his death on Tuesday but declined to comment. Hosmer started working for Arnold and Itkin seven months ago as a “team captain,” according to his LinkedIn page. He had been a licensed flight instructor and the managing member of Platinum Skies Aviation LLC, incorporated in Texas in late 2024, online records show.
A founding partner of the firm is listed as the agent for the company that owns the plane. The personal injury firm — whose partners are major donors to the University of Texas football and other causes — has so far declined to identify the passengers or comment on the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday began its investigation while Bangor International Airport remained closed to preserve the scene where the two crew and four passengers aboard the plane died in the Sunday evening crash.
Collins, who was married with children and grandchildren, had also been helping plan her daughter’s wedding set for this year, Iloff said.
“She was very good at it. Everybody wanted her to plan her events for them,” he said.
The church, in a statement, called Collins “a light that brightened our days."
The Bombardier Challenger 600 flipped over and burned on takeoff at around 7:45 p.m. after stopping along its journey from Houston to Paris to refuel. It remained unclear on Tuesday if the weather or cold played a role in the crash as investigators were just beginning their work.
Bangor police were waiting for the NTSB to allow them to access the plane to identify the victims and, with the state coroner's office, care for their bodies.
Dozens of scheduled flights had been impacted, the airport said.
The FAA, in an updated accident statement on Tuesday, said the plane “crashed under unknown circumstances on departure, came to rest inverted and caught on fire.”
The international airport in Bangor, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Boston, is one of the closest in the U.S. to Europe and is often used to refuel private jets flying overseas. The Bombardier was headed for France when it crashed.
NTSB officials said they would have an update on Wednesday. A preliminary report outlining the facts of the crash should be released in about a month, but the final version likely won't be published for more than a year.
The Bombardier Challenger 600 is a wide-bodied business jet configured for nine to 11 passengers. It was launched in 1980 as the first private jet with a “walk-about cabin” and remains a popular charter option, according to aircharterservice.com.
Experts say the weather and questions about whether ice accumulating on the wings kept the plane from getting airborne — as has happened at least twice before on that plane model — will likely be an initial focus by the NTSB. However, the agency will consider all possible factors.
“Nothing is off the table,” said John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems.
The Bombardier Challenger 600 model crashed in Birmingham, England; and Montrose, Colorado, more than 20 years ago, aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti said.
“Given the weather conditions at the time, and the history of wind contamination with this particular aircraft, I’m sure that’s something the NTSB is going to look into immediately,” Guzzetti said.
Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska and Dale reported from Philadelphia.
This image taken from video provided by WABI television, emergency services work on a scene of the Bombardier Challenger 600 crash at the Bangor Airport in Maine, late Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (WABI via AP)
