3 salary dump candidates with potential the Pirates should pursue this offseason

Wandy Peralta

The Pirates need some lefty reliever depth, and the San Diego Padres would probably be willing to trade Peralta to get his contract off the books. The Friars signed Peralta last offseason after a solid run with the New York Yankees. Between 2022 and 2023, Peralta put up a 2.77 ERA, 3.93 FIP, and 1.13 WHIP. His peripherals weren’t great, with a 21.3% K% and 10.4% walk rate, but he had a solid 0.73 HR/9 and a strong 5.7% barrel rate.

His first season in San Diego wasn’t nearly as good. Peralta had a 3.99 ERA and 1.20 WHIP, but a 5.46 FIP. Free passes became much less of an issue, as his BB% was just 8%, but Peralta saw his K% nosedive to just 13.6%. His HR/9 also took a turn for the worse, rising to 1.41. Peralta allowed far more hard contact, with his exit velocity spiking to 89.1 MPH (compared to 86.1 MPH in 2022-2023), while his barrel rate also jumped to 8.1%.

For what it’s worth, Peralta missed a good chunk of the season due to a left adductor strain, missing most of July and all of August. In total, he only tallied 38.1 innings. Peralta logged over 50 innings in his three prior seasons. He returned during the first week of September and pitched 4.1 scoreless frames to end the regular season. 

Peralta’s contract has an interesting set-up. He picked up his player option for 2025, which is worth $4.25 million, but he also has player options for each of 2026 and 2027 worth $4.45 million each. Peralta’s season probably wasn’t as good as the Padres were hoping for. If they are willing to include another, younger player with control remaining, or a prospect to get Peralta off their payroll, the Pirates should consider it. He could be a solid middle-inning lefty - and with Joey Wentz currently occupying the only left-handed role in Pittsburgh's bullpen following the formal departure of Aroldis Chapman, that's a vacancy the Pirates need to creatively fill.