Drew Rasmussen gets the headlines, but Freddy Peralta might be the sweetest revenge story of this World Series. The other ex-Brewer in Tampa’s rotation has taken the longer, stranger road back to Milwaukee, and his co-ace turn has been one of October’s defining arcs.
Peralta’s journey started with the offseason trade that sent him from Milwaukee to the Mets for prospects Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, a deal that panned out for neither side. He struggled in the first half in New York, then landed in Tampa at the deadline and became a different pitcher. With Rasmussen, he has started five of the Rays’ seven postseason wins.
The July warning
There is a data point the Brewers will not love. Peralta faced his old club in July, still with the Mets, and was pounded for seven earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. Tampa’s bet is that the pitcher who arrives this week is not that pitcher, that the deadline move and the Rays’ pitching lab have rebuilt him into the co-ace of a pennant winner.
The Brewers’ side of the story has its own tension. The club that faced Milwaukee’s rest-vs-rust gamble as the ALCS dragged on now gets the opponent it knows best and least: a rotation built from its own former prospects, throwing against it on the biggest stage.
The full circle
Peralta’s arc mirrors the series itself. The Brewers seized a 2-0 NLCS lead over the Dodgers on the way here; the Rays took down the Yankees. Two small-market clubs, two rotations full of familiar faces, and a Fall Classic that keeps circling back to the trades that made it.
MLB Trade Rumors’ series preview lists the ex-Brewer storylines among the Fall Classic’s richest. Rasmussen starts Game 1. Peralta waits in the wings. The revenge tour has two headliners.
