Archive for January 2026
Freddy Peralta Got Traded from the Brewers, and I Have Thoughts…
Folks, last week one of my favorite Milwaukee Brewers pitchers, Freddy Peralta, got traded to the New York Mets.
Why is this important to me? Well, he was the de facto ace of the staff, was fifth in the Cy Young Award voting for best pitcher, and had proven to be durable and dependable in his career with the Brewers.
I can hear you now, though. “If he’s so good, Barb, why was he traded to another team?”
The Brewers are a small-market franchise, meaning they do not get as much advertising money as bigger-market teams like New York (either the Yankees or the Mets) or, God forbid, the Los Angeles Dodgers, they who have wrecked competitive balance and have been allowed to do so by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. (Don’t get me started on the Dodgers bloated payroll, or I’ll be here all day.) Because of that, they can’t afford to pay many players what they’re worth. They usually choose one or two players to pay, and try to lock others up early with better-than-average contracts for their youth or lack of time in grade as a MLB player, which will buy out their arbitration years (that’s where if they don’t like the contract they’re offered, they can go in front of an arbitrator; the player’s representative gives the figure he wants, MLB team gives the figure they want, and the arbitrator decides).
Also, Peralta was a beneficiary of this, to a degree. They signed him to a long-term contract extension early in his career that, at the time, was worth more than his stats would indicate as they felt he had huge upside. They were right (as the Brewers front office staff often is). Peralta, the last few years, was still making excellent money for a non-sports star, but far, far less than most of his pitching contemporaries.
But this is his “walk year.” Meaning, he has only one year until free agency, where he can negotiate with any team (including the dreaded Dodgers). The Mets may be able to sign Peralta to a long-term contract extension before the end of this year, but the Brewers never would’ve been able to do so. That’s why the Mets made an offer (two prospects, Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, for Peralta and fellow right-handed pitcher Tobias Myers), and it’s why the Brewers accepted that offer.
I have nothing against either Williams or Sproat, mind you. I hope they’ll do well for the Brewers, as Williams is a utility player with great speed who makes contact, and Sproat is a pitcher with big upside. But the Brewers traded a known quantity in Peralta, a semi-known quantity in Myers (who had a good year in 2024, and split time in 2025 between AAA and the big-league club), to get the two prospects. And while Sproat has pitched a little in the big leagues, the jury is out as to whether or not he’ll eventually be a good replacement for Peralta, as durable starters are rare these days in MLB.
The thing is, as a long-time fan of a small-market team, I know how hard it is for them to compete, year after year, with deeper pocketed clubs (especially the Dodgers; I like some of what the Dodgers do from the front office, they have a great staff, and I like their manager Dave Roberts. But the amount of money they spend on personnel is insane). That’s why it hurts to see good player after good player leaving the team, whether it’s Prince Fielder years ago or Freddy Peralta now.
We’re fortunate, in a way, that we have had some long-term stars to look at, like Hall of Famer Robin Yount (only played for the Brewers), former MVP and Rookie of the Year Ryan Braun (only played for the Brewers), and former MVP Christian Yelich (still active, and who’s only played for two teams in his career, the Miami Marlins where he started and the Brewers ever since he got traded to them). The Brewers have been canny in some of their moves, such as signing stars like Peralta and emerging superstar Jackson Chourio to long-term extensions early, which keeps them in Milwaukee years longer than might’ve been possible otherwise. (Every time they do this, they’re gambling that the player will develop well and won’t get hurt. So far, their gambles have mostly been very good to extremely good.)
That said, it hurts when former Brewers stars like Willy Adames bolt for other teams in free agency, even though as fans we know that players have to go wherever they can get the best deal as their careers are so blessedly short. It hurts when former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes gets traded during his “walk year,” as he was a few years ago, no matter how good the folks are who come back in that trade. (The jury’s still out on pitcher DL Hall, but Joey Ortiz has proven himself a capable and reliable defensive infielder. He does not hit for contact, though, and strikes out way too much for a guy who is not a slugger. I’d grade that trade as something like a C-plus for the Brewers, but it could still go up if Ortiz ever figures out where the strike zone is and learns to stop waving at pitches far outside of it and if Hall ever gets healthy.) It hurts when world-class closers Josh Hader and Devin Williams get traded, and it hurts when someone who didn’t really get much of a chance this last year but proved himself to be a standup guy — Rhys Hoskins — is not re-signed.
And it hurts when Peralta, who, like Adames, was a great clubhouse guy who everyone seemed to love and appreciate (and never called out anyone else for poor play other than his own self, a rarity with contemporary ballplayers in some respects), gets traded during his walk year also.
It doesn’t matter that my head understands the logic. My heart is still kind of bruised, as a fan of these players. (Also, Adames and Peralta, like current Brewers star Christian Yelich, were known for their philanthropy over time and overall unselfish attitudes.)
I know that when Peralta’s career ends, he’ll be inducted first to the Walk of Fame (as all past All-Stars representing the Brewers tend to be) and then later the Wall of Honor. He’ll always be a Brewers player in my heart, except when he plays the Brewers (in which case I will hope he gets a no-decision). He’ll always be loved in Milwaukee.
Unfortunately, that’s cold comfort to me right now as a fan. And I do wonder how general managers or front office staff, those who know these players personally far better than I ever could, manage to do this without throwing up and having night sweats.
Introspection City (A Meditation on Life, Minnesota, and Struggles)
Have you ever been in this place I find myself? Looking inward, because looking outward makes no sense?
Over the past six months, I’ve lost so much stuff. Some of it was important to me — favorite books, various small things like dishes and glasses that didn’t make it in the move (not that it would help much if it did, except make me feel better, as it’s all in storage), other things that gave me comfort every day — and some wasn’t. But there’s no denying that much of how my life is lived has changed.
I stand at a crossroads of possibilities, yes. Some are very low-level possibilities (like finding a second guy as good as Michael was); some are higher-level possibilities (such as visiting another country for a while, as I’ve been invited to two different places) that seem impossible due to financial constraints. My health also limits me more than I’d wish, had I my druthers.
The amount of time I have for myself is very low at the moment, which is why my books continue to languish as “out of print” (which is weird, because they were always ebooks anyway, so technically were never print at all). Because of the struggle of the last several months on various fronts, I continue to make strides back to the life I’d thought I knew. It wasn’t always wonderful, but it had enough time in it to write both music and words, for me to think about what I should do next, writing-wise, and I was able to juggle all my various commitments to home, work, and family well enough that I knew I was still in there, fighting.
I’m not sure what fighting looks like right now.
Remember how I said, above, that looking outward makes no sense? I am struggling with what’s happened in Minnesota, as two people who shouldn’t be dead are, and while there’s some dispute about the first tragic death, that of Renee Good, there’s not a whole lot of dispute regarding the death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti. He went to another woman’s aid as he didn’t like it that five or six ICE officers were holding a rather short and slight woman to the ground and beating her. They’d pepper-sprayed her and they pepper-sprayed him, but he managed to help the woman up…only to get tackled himself, and then shot several times. He had a gun tucked into his waistband but did not draw it. (There are multiple angles of view, enough so that AI — artificial intelligence/images — shouldn’t be a problem here. They were posted in real time, too, when it happened, and witnesses confirm what happened along with a doctor — a pediatrician — who attempted to help Pretti stay alive.) He had a legal permit to carry a firearm (I’m not sure why he felt he needed it as a nurse, but it was his right), so all the nonsense about him carrying a lot of ammo and such and supposedly being an agent provocateur or whatnot is ludicrous.
Milwaukee, which is the biggest city in Southeastern Wisconsin (or all of Wisconsin), is the next city that’s going to see more than it wants to of ICE. This worries me.
Before anyone asks, I support ICE’s legitimate mission of going after the “worst of the worst” criminals and putting them in jail where they belong. (I also appreciate a secure border policy.) People who’ve overstayed their visas do not count in that category. American citizens do not count. Folks with green cards do not count. Families should not be split up, and mothers and children should not be going to different places.
In Renee Good’s case, she may have run over an officer’s foot. That is painful. But it does not warrant a killing. It warrants being put in jail and having her day in court. She would be alive that way and justice would perhaps be served at some point.
As for Alex Pretti, I don’t see where even sending him to jail for a few hours until he bonded out was necessary. But if they had wanted to do that, at least he’d be alive. (To see on the various videos — no, I will not link to them — that he rose to his knees despite being shot, only to be shot even more times until he ended up on the ground again, makes me extremely ill.)
The actions of ICE in Minnesota are making me ask this question: Are we still a nation of laws? Or are we only a nation of vigilante justice?
So, as I wrestle with my own issues — finance, health, where am I going to live, am I doing the right thing in the right way, etc. — I’m also watching as my country seems to be imploding.
It’s Introspection City all the way around. And I have to admit, I don’t like it at all.
Random Thoughts on Recent Sporting Events
Folks, I am dealing with a sinus infection that is actually a secondary infection to something else. I suspect it was the flu (though I did get the flu shot, they “guessed wrong” and the strain we got wasn’t the one they’d tried to inoculate us against), but I will never be sure as I tested negative for it by the time I got into the doctor’s office. (For what it’s worth, I also tested negative for Covid.)
Anyway, while my attention span continues to be splintered, I did have a few thoughts yesterday, mostly while watching sports. During troubled times, like the times we’re going through right now in the United States, there’s a type of purity in sport that calls to me, possibly because it’s meritocratic to a large degree. (There are some games thrown off by bad officiating, mind you. That’s why I said “to a large degree” in the first place. But I digress.)
So, the first thing I watched over this weekend was a surprising Milwaukee Bucks team, with a healthier Giannis Antetokounmpo, beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles on Friday night. The Bucks are under .500 (meaning they’ve lost more than they’ve won), mostly because Giannis was out for ten games or so. When Giannis plays, the Bucks are world-beaters. When he doesn’t, they struggle. A lot.
That said, this year’s Bucks team has shown improvement from everyone except Giannis (as Giannis is already All-World, what more can you do there but sustain your excellence? Which Giannis is doing, of course), and guard Ryan Rollins has been particularly good offensively and with assists. No one saw his huge improvement coming, though he played well in more limited playing time last year. Plus forward Kyle Kuzma has played substantially improved defense and seems much more comfortable and confident than he was last year after he was traded from the Washington Wizards for forward Khris Middleton. (There was more to the trade than these two guys, but they were the “main two” in the trade. I say this for sports’ fans completists, who will know full well that I’m not discussing that whole trade. But I digress again, and time is short.) Making this improvement even more surprising is that Kuzma has mostly played in the second unit, being the first or second guy off the bench (along with long-time Bucks excellent sixth man, Bobby Portis). So instead of starting, he’s coming in to spell others, and while he has played well also while filling in for Giannis, he really seems to have taken to the sixth (or seventh) man role. Further, Kuzma has been completely unselfish in his play, which I also think very few people would’ve expected.
A slight digression: Kuzma wasn’t selfish last year, I don’t think. But he had growing pains from being traded by a bad Washington Wizards team after having been by far the best player on that team. He only intermittently fit in with last year’s crop of Bucks players and seemed more than a bit uncomfortable. But all of that is gone now, and he’s been a standout of the Bucks season thus far.
Then, I watched the Green Bay Packers lose to the Chicago Bears after the Packers had led nearly all game. But as they’ve been doing lately, the Packers fell apart in the fourth quarter, and lost their fifth consecutive game. (This means they “backed in” to the playoffs, as other teams had to lose for them to advance due to their own problems.) This was partly because four or five of the best players on the team (besides Jordan Love, the quarterback, Malik Willis, the backup QB, and the wide receiving crew) were injured, including excellent defender Micah Parsons, who had season-ending surgery several weeks ago.
There’s talk now that Matt LaFleur, the head coach of the Packers, will be fired. I don’t think he should be. I think the team was trying to overcome a lot of unexpected injuries. I don’t think coaches should be fired when big-name players like Micah Parsons are too injured to play (and made a huge difference before his injury, granted). I also don’t think coaches should be fired when their excellent tight end, Tucker Kraft, was on the football equivalent of the disabled list in baseball (OK, they call it the “Injured List” now, but you know what I mean.) Too many front-line players were hurt, and if the Packers had trailed from the start, rallying only to fall short in the last few minutes, I think fans would be happier than what happened.
See, when it goes the other way — when you are leading the whole game, only to be caught at the end (there also was some abysmal play by the kicker, Brandon McManus; McManus is usually reliable and dependable, but he missed two field goals and worse than that, also missed an extra point and didn’t come close to making any of those three things) — fans get expectations. We can’t help it. We see how well the Packers are playing, or whatever team it is, and we start jumping to endings. “Wow, the Packers as the seventh seed are about to knock off the two-seeded Bears? Impressive!”
Then it doesn’t happen.
(Another digression: It reminds me of how I have to get my books back out there. I haven’t been up to rewriting blurbs. Some days lately, I have only been barely able to do the equivalent of trading water, though I did finish up a big edit a week and a half ago, and am working on another now.)
Finally, I got a chance to watch the men’s United States figure skating championships (oh, the miracles of modern television and streaming!), and was impressed with the top five skaters. Ilia Malinin won, of course, as was expected. (He does jumps no one else in the world can do, has excellent footwork and spins also, and basically is the best figure skater in the world.) Andrew Torgashev came in second (repeating his finish from last year’s nationals), Maxim Naumov third, Jacob Sanchez fourth, and Tomoki Hiwatashi came in fifth. All four of these men skated very well, though not perfectly (Sanchez probably came closest to perfection in his program, followed by Torgashev). Naumov was particularly impressive as he lost his parents (who were also his figure skating coaches) last year in the plane crash with the U.S. Army helicopter (it was unfortunately the helicopter operator’s fault, which doesn’t help anyone concerned). He was the sentimental favorite for an Olympic spot partly due to that, and partly due to the fact that he’s been on the cusp of figure skating excellence for at least four or five years.
Still, there were other great stories. Torgashev had two very fine performances in a row in his short and long programs and brought the crowd to its feet. Jacob Sanchez, only eighteen years of age, skated the program of his life and was visibly overjoyed at his performance, also earning a standing ovation. Takahashi finished only two points behind Sanchez in a strong fifth place, and both he and Sanchez were about two points behind Naumov’s third-place finish. (Seriously, if skating were more like a horse race, these three would’ve led to a photo finish or the equivalent. These guys did it different ways, but all skated the best they possibly could under the circumstances in my opinion.)
The lone disappointment, for me at least, was the performance of popular figure skater Jason Brown. Brown has the best overall skating skills in the world due to his phenomenal spins, excellent footwork, good, deep edges to his skating, and usually has competent-to-better jumps that look fantastic because of his overall approach to the sport.
But Saturday night wasn’t his night. He “popped” one jump (something happens when skaters jump and the body won’t let them rotate; that’s the best way I can explain this), turning a triple into a single. He nearly fell three times and did fall a fourth. (Granted, he did it balletically and if anyone can fall beautifully, it’s Jason Brown.) Most of his triple jumps were underrotated to my eye (and, unfortunately for him, also to the figure skating judges in the arena from what I could tell), though he did do a few good combo jumps with a triple and a double (and may have done one triple-triple). He had a good attitude about his skate, and didn’t show anything other than calmness and maturity, something I know I found very hard to do when I was competing in music contests (yes, even when I was in my early thirties, as Jason Brown now is). I can only applaud Brown for taking it in stride, as he’s had a great career in the sport and probably wanted to go out on a high note (as it’s generally assumed that this will be his last competitive year in figure skating), as did everyone who’s watched him over the years.
Now it’s up to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to pick the teams to represent the United States. Because Brown has been so reliable, there is thought he’d be placed on the team despite his performance yesterday evening as the third skater behind Malinin (a no-brainer) and Torgashev (second year in a row as silver medalist, also a no-brainer). But if it were up to me, Naumov makes the team instead of Brown, and both Sanchez and Hiwatashi go as first and second alternates, taken to Milan to observe and be ready in case anyone gets injured. Only after those five men are placed should Jason Brown be given any consideration, even with his long years in the sport and his overall popularity, mostly because figure skating is a sport where stars are often fleeting. For all I know, this could be Sanchez’s only chance despite his young age. Hiwatashi skated so well (as I said, both he and Sanchez were right up there with Naumov and all three had similar scores, with Naumov edging them both out — sorry about the pun there), he also deserves to go as an alternate.
Mind you, I don’t like having to type out those words because Jason Brown is a friendly, honest, kind-hearted person and has been a particularly distinctive and elegant skater for probably the last fifteen years if not a bit more. He broke onto the scene relatively early, and he’s stayed relevant now into his thirty-first year of life, which is almost unheard of in men’s skating these days due to the rigors of all those triple jumps (and, if you’re Malinin or the others I discussed in the top five, at least one quad jump, though Malinin has been known to have up to seven or so quads in his program). Those jumps are hard on the back, harder still on the knees, and probably are harder every year you skate due to past injuries and such.
So, as an “older performer” myself (though I am, ahem, a bit older than Brown’s thirty-one), I don’t like having to say stuff like this. I love Brown’s skating and wish he’d had the performance of his life, so he could go out on a high note as he deserved.
But sometimes, as I’ve said before, we don’t get what we want. We have to be resilient, which Brown has been his entire career, and find ways to be content with our performances even if they don’t turn out the way we want. (At least we got up there and tried. That’s more than most people can do right there.)
What I think should be done with Jason Brown is something akin to what the Dodgers did with Clayton Kershaw in the All-Star game. Kershaw wasn’t pitching his best anymore, but was a great pitcher, and will be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He deserved to go to the game out of longevity. He came in and pitched at most one inning (it might’ve been less), and the crowd was able to give Kershaw one final ovation.
I don’t know how you do that in figure skating. (I’m a long-term fan, but this situation hasn’t come up before, as best I can tell.) Brown deserves something similar, but how does it happen without slighting Naumov, Sanchez, and Hiwatashi, who all easily out-skated Brown last night? (As did a few others, as Brown finished up in eighth place.)
They only have so many spots. I know that. And the USOC can do one of four things:
- Reward Jason Brown for his longevity and give him the chance to win a team medal.
- Give Sanchez the third spot as he’s eighteen, an up-and-comer, and that will give him needed experience for his next Olympic try (providing he stays healthy) in 2030.
- Give Hiwatashi the third spot due to his overall improvement, his long record of international competitions and overall competitiveness. Or…
- Just name the top three finishers, Malinin, Torgashev, and Naumov, with Sanchez and Hiwatashi being alternates, as I said in the first place. (These last two probably will get sent to the Four Continents championship, which is often what the runners-up to the Olympic team get assigned to…but there’s nothing wrong with that.)
Those are my thoughts. This blog went on a little longer than I’d expected, but I hope that readers enjoyed it anyway…may you have a great week, full of happiness and kindness and resilience, and don’t let the bastards grind you down. (Whoever the bastards may be.)
Barb Caffrey's Blog 