Mets trade pitcher Freddy Peralta to Rays for 3 minor leaguers

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Mets trade pitcher Freddy Peralta to Rays for 3 minor leaguers

2026-08-03 06:20 Last Updated At：18:19

NEW YORK (AP) — The first-place Tampa Bay Rays gave their starting rotation a boost Sunday, acquiring pitcher Freddy Peralta from the struggling New York Mets for three minor leaguers.

Peralta, a two-time All-Star who can become a free agent this fall, has been a disappointment for the Mets after they acquired him from Milwaukee in a January trade.

“He gave us everything that he had, stepped out on the mound every single day and competed,” interim Mets manager Andy Green said. “I know he wanted better results. And I think when we struck the deal to get him, we were all hoping for a different set of circumstances on this day than what we’re looking at.”

Green said Peralta was informed of the trade during the early innings of a 2-0 loss to the Miami Marlins that dropped the Mets to 47-66 — their worst record through 113 games since 2003, the last time New York finished last in the NL East.

But Peralta could help a strong pitching staff with the Rays, who began the day with the best record in the American League at 65-45 and a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees.

“Freddy is a proven major league starter with high-stakes experience and a strong track record,” Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander said in a statement. “Adding a pitcher and competitor of his caliber strengthens our team as we push forward.”

The last-place Mets received outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and right-hander Gary Gill Hill in exchange for Peralta. Pitre was a second-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2024 draft while Hill was a sixth-round pick in 2022. Smith was picked in the fourth round of the 2023 draft by the Seattle Mariners, who sent him the Rays in the Randy Arozarena trade in July 2024.

The move came a day before baseball’s trade deadline at 6 p.m. EDT on Monday, and hours after the Los Angeles Dodgers landed the biggest prize on the market, ace pitcher Tarik Skubal, in a deal with the Detroit Tigers.

Before joining the Mets last offseason, Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA over 33 starts in 2025. He led the National League in wins, finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting and helped the Brewers win their third straight NL Central crown.

With the Rays, the 30-year-old right-hander joins a rotation headed by All-Stars Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez. Left-hander Shane McClanahan, an All-Star in 2022 and 2023, is 9-6 with a 3.09 ERA in 20 starts but was placed on the 15-day injured list Friday with mid-back tightness on his left side.

Last winter, New York sent youngsters Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams to the Brewers for Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers, giving up a pair of players rated among the game’s top 100 prospects in the anticipation Peralta would be the frontline starter the team needed.

Instead, he went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts and failed to complete five innings in four of his last five outings for the Mets.

“I know he’s disappointed by it,” Green said. “He came here to anchor a rotation and felt the weight of that. I know from talking to him he certainly doesn’t feel like it went the way that he thought it would.”

He was 5-5 with a 3.90 ERA after beating Atlanta 8-1 on June 14, but is 0-4 with a 7.93 ERA in his past seven starts, including a June 20 dud when he allowed 10 runs and 10 hits over 2 2/3 innings at Philadelphia.

“I know that so far I let them down,” Peralta said late last month. “I haven’t (done) what I was supposed to do.”

Peralta becomes the latest pitcher traded away by the high-priced Mets, who are selling off assets for young prospects after beginning a miserable 2026 season with World Series aspirations.

“I think where we are today screams that we’re all wishing we were in a different spot,” said Green, who began the season as the Mets’ vice president of player development before moving into the manager’s chair following the firing of Carlos Mendoza on June 26.

They sent David Peterson to the Chicago Cubs for minor league infielder Cole Mathis one day before Mendoza’s dismissal and reliever A.J. Minter to Minnesota for minor league infielders Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick last Friday.

Peterson and Minter are eligible for free agency after this season as well. New York also is expected to move pitcher Clay Holmes, reliever Brooks Raley and outfielder Tyrone Taylor before Monday’s deadline — and possibly players such as relievers Huascar Brazobán and Luke Weaver, each of whom are under team control next year.

Holmes, who broke his right fibula on May 15, made a rehab start for Single-A Brooklyn Sunday, when he allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Raley, Weaver and Brazobán all threw a hitless inning of relief while Taylor pinch-ran in the ninth inning.

“Those guys were all healthy, rested, available, good to go,” Green said. “So we felt comfortable letting them do what they do during a baseball season.”

To open a spot for Peralta on the 40-man roster, Rays outfielder Jake Fraley (hernia) was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

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Europe's hot, dry summer takes its toll with fires in France and Greece, and drought in the UK

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A record-breaking hot and dry summer tightened its grip on Europe on Monday, as water-dropping planes swooped over a major wildfire in Greece, firefighters in France sought to stabilize a blaze in Provence, and much of the United Kingdom recorded its driest July in nearly two centuries.

Wildfires west of Athens jumped containment lines a day after a midair collision between two helicopters killed two crew members. A Greek and a Danish national died and two others were hospitalized following the collision on Sunday.

All four were private operators chartered by the Greek firefighting service.

In France, firefighters in the region around Bordeaux guarded against potential flare-ups inside a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris.

A prolonged heat wave and lack of rainfall led to the driest July in England and Wales in nearly 200 years of recordkeeping, according to provisional statistics, the U.K.’s weather service said Monday.

All of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought, the Met Office said. The dry spell was accompanied by sweltering temperatures across much of the U.K., following heat waves in May and June.

Wales tied its record for its warmest mean temperature for July while England and the U.K. recorded their second-warmest July.

Strong winds returned to southern Greece late on Monday, pushing flames into mountain home clusters, destroying farms and property, and closing a highway.

Areas surrounding the Greek capital remain at high risk through the week with temperatures set to rise further. More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from around the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and other areas west of the capital — including more than 250 rescued by boats from beaches in the area.

“This is a difficult fire that has troubled us,” Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said, adding that 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were operating in the area Monday.

The blaze was blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm and led to the arrests of two contractors on charges of negligent arson.

Despite improved detection methods and expanded cooperation among European Union members, Greece and other countries along Europe's Mediterranean coast suffer devastating wildfires every summer as spells of heat wave temperatures grow longer.

Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.

Thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home or to their holiday accommodations in France on Monday after a massive wildfire remained contained. More than 224,000 people had fled in what officials said was the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.

The wildfire burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles), making it France’s largest wildfire on record. Monday's return includes Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourist hot spot along the Atlantic coast, and Le Porge, the municipality hardest hit by the fire, where 183 homes were destroyed. Campsites remain closed.

A second wildfire in Provence did not flare up overnight, but was still not contained on Monday as stronger winds were expected, firefighters and authorities said. About 1,500 firefighters, supported by water-dropping helicopters, continued reinforcing fire lines along the blaze that tore through about 18 square kilometers (7 square miles).

The European Forest Fire Information System said the risk of wildfire remains high across parts of the continent through Aug. 5, including in traditionally cooler northern countries.

Firefighters in the Netherlands were battling a large blaze on Monday in a forest in the southern province of Limburg, authorities said, as the country sweltered through another day of hot, dry summer weather. The national railway operator halted trains between two towns in the area due to the fire.

The Dutch air force sent two Chinook helicopters equipped with large water containers to help firefighters tackle the blaze. Media reported that a campsite in the area was evacuated due to poor air quality caused by a large plume of smoke.

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens; Thomas Adamson in Paris; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.