New York Mets ace Freddy Peralta is skipping the World Baseball Classic as he enters his contract year with a chance to secure a life-changing bag after the World Series. Meanwhile, a total of seven Mets young players made Baseball Prospectus’ list of top 101 prospects.
Mets ace Freddy Peralta announces WBC decision
The World Baseball Classic is once again colliding with the realities of modern MLB priorities, and nowhere is that clearer than with the Dominican Republic and the Mets.
On paper, the Dominican lineup looks like a cheat code, stacked with superstars at every turn, but the pitching picture is rapidly thinning. Freddy Peralta’s decision to stay in Mets camp removes a frontline arm from an already depleted staff that has also lost Framber Valdez, Luis Castillo, Eury Pérez, and key bullpen pieces.
While Sandy Alcantara remains, the depth simply isn’t there, turning what should be a balanced powerhouse into an offense-heavy juggernaut with real vulnerabilities. Mets fans may quietly celebrate the move, as Peralta’s focus on a normal spring follows a dominant 2025 and signals how seriously he’s taking his role atop a rotation built to contend.
7 Mets prospects appear in Baseball Prospectus’ list of 101: Get to know them all
While the international stage absorbs those losses, the Mets’ organizational outlook continues to brighten at home. Baseball Prospectus made waves by placing seven Mets prospects inside its Top 101, a clear declaration that this system runs far deeper than star power alone.
Nolan McLean headlines the group as one of the premier pitching prospects in the game after proving he belongs in the majors, while Jonah Tong’s unorthodox delivery and underlying metrics suggest far more upside than his surface numbers showed. On the position-player side, Carson Benge’s power-speed blend, Ryan Clifford’s thunderous left-handed bat, and A.J. Ewing’s game-breaking speed give the system offensive variety.
Add in under-the-radar risers like Jacob Reimer and Will Watson, and the Mets suddenly look less like a team buying wins and more like one building a sustainable pipeline.
Can David Peterson repeat his 2025 success for the Mets in 2026?
That balance between upside and reliability also defines David Peterson’s place in the 2026 rotation. Coming off a career-high workload in 2025, Peterson provided exactly what the Mets needed: innings, stability, and league-average-to-better production.
His success leaned heavily on an elite groundball rate that helped mask concerning hard-contact metrics and a walk rate that kept him pitching with traffic. Advanced numbers suggest some regression risk, which is why projections vary from a legitimate mid-rotation breakout to a familiar back-end profile.
Still, with Peralta now leading the staff, Peterson no longer needs to be more than what he is best suited to be: a durable SP4 or SP5 who absorbs innings and protects the bullpen. In a league starving for healthy starters, that role alone carries real value.
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