It’s a new year so we’ve got new rumors when it comes to the Atlanta Braves and their plans for continuing to improved their roster for the upcoming 2026 season. Earlier on in the offseason, Alex Anthopoulos made it clear that the three areas that they’d be prioritizing were shortstop, bullpen and starting pitching — with the idea of getting an outfield bat being lovely as well.

So far, they’ve hit on three of those goals and the last thing left to mark on their checklist is starting pitcher. While the free agency market doesn’t look super-enticing at the moment, the Braves could always attempt to go down the trade route in order to find their new rotation member.

Advertisement

According to the lastest article from Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Braves are one of a handful of teams who are interested in potentially swinging a trade to bring in Milwaukee Brewers hurler Freddy Peralta. Here’s what they had to say about the Braves current level of interest and also their odds of pulling off a deal as well:

Both New York clubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox are among the teams showing interest. Some low-revenue clubs that can absorb Peralta’s $8 million salary are in play as well.

The Brewers’ price, even with Peralta under club control for one more season, remains high. A major-league-ready starting pitcher figures to be part of the desired return, so the team can remain a contender. And the calculus also includes this: Any team that acquires Peralta can recoup one prospect by making him a qualifying offer and receiving a likely Competitive Balance Round A pick in the low 30s in 2027.

A [Braves] trade for Peralta or [MacKenzie] Gore would appear less likely than signing a free agent at a reduced price, if it comes to that with any of the remaining Valdez/Suárez/Gallen trio. The Braves are reluctant to move any of their better pitching prospects.

As you can see, they also mentioned that the Braves could potentially be interested in trading for Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore as well, though I’d say that any type of deal like that would be highly unlikely since the Nationals are a divisional rival and don’t figure to be in complete tank mode for the upcoming season as well. So Peralta would be the more likely trade target here and even that doesn’t seem super likely as well since the article also mentioned that the Braves aren’t really looking to shop some of their top pitching prospects as well.

Still, if they really want him then they’d have to overcome some stiff competiton when it comes to picking up the hurler who is entering his Age-30 season. He’s coming off of a year where he finished with a 2.70 ERA (65 ERA-), a 3.64 FIP (88 ERA-) and 3.6 fWAR produced over 176.2 innings pitched. Needless to say, that’s a very attractive body of work for any team that figures to have their sights set on the postseason and it’s also why the Brewers figure to drive a hard bargain in any trade negotiations.

With all of that being said, it’s hard to top Peralta when it comes to ideas help improve this Braves rotation with who’s currently available on either the free agency or trade market. We’ll see what happens but this could potentially be the big swing that puts the icing on top of what’s already been a productive offseason for Atlanta ahead of the 2026 season.