'He's just getting better': Peralta becomes fastest Brewer to reach 1,000 career K's

CLEVELAND -- Freddy Peralta was traded to the Brewers as an anonymous 19-year-old and made it to the Majors as a 21-year-old with a big smile and braces. It might feel like that was yesterday, but he’s been around long enough that he’s etching his name in the franchise record books.

Peralta logged his 1,000th strikeout when he whiffed Guardians second baseman Daniel Schneemann to end the fifth inning of Monday’s 5-0 loss at Progressive Field, putting the 28-year-old from Moca, Dominican Republic, on a short list of pitchers to reach that milestone for the franchise.

Teddy Higuera, Ben Sheets and Yovani Gallardo all topped 1,000 strikeouts for the Brewers. None got to that number faster than Peralta, who did it 187 games and 804 2/3 innings.

“It means a lot for me. I’ve been waiting for this moment,” said Peralta who entered the day needing three strikeouts for the round number. “Hopefully, now to keep going and get to 2,000.”

Veteran left-hander Jose Quintana commemorated the occasion by gifting Peralta a bottle of wine with a hand-written message on the label. On the nameplate atop his locker in the visitors’ clubhouse, Peralta’s No. 51 had been replaced by “1K.”

“This isn’t the milestone that’s going to make or break him. He’s going to pitch for a long time,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s just getting better. He’s coming into his own. And he’s been so consistent for us.”

Indeed, at 28, Peralta has a lot of pitching in front of him. A onetime position player who converted to pitching before signing with the Mariners, who later traded him to the Brewers with two other young pitching prospects for first baseman Adam Lind, Peralta arrived in the Majors on Mother’s Day in 2018 armed with a four-seam fastball that he threw for as many as 90 percent of his pitches in some outings. It earned him the nickname “Fastball Freddy.”

But Peralta has evolved over the years into a true pitcher. He’s throwing four pitches this season, still leading with the fastball (59 percent of the time going into Monday) but also with a changeup (19.1 percent), a curveball (14.6 percent) and a slider (7.2 percent).

That’s made him a more consistent pitcher, and for the Brewers that has meant everything. He was the only pitcher to make all of his starts in 2024, when the team tied a franchise record by using 17 different starters. Peralta has made every start so far this year again, although Monday’s outing was pushed back by two days after he experienced some groin tightness in his previous game against the Cubs.

Against the Guardians, Peralta was charged with four earned runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings, with three walks and four strikeouts. Three of those runs, however, scored when center fielder Jackson Chourio couldn’t corral a bases-loaded, two-out fly ball in the fourth inning that carried a 95 percent catch probability, according to Statcast.

“It hurt me, because at the end of the day, it’s three runs and probably cost us the game, but I don’t want to make him feel bad. I don’t want to judge him,” Peralta said. “I just told him, ‘It happens.’ … We’re here to support each other.”

That’s been a constant emphasis for the Brewers as they’ve hovered around .500 this season.

“Some teams would be satisfied being in the hunt, but we’re not playing well,” Murphy said. “We’re not as disciplined as we should be. We’re not as free as we should be. We’ve got a lot of excuses if you want them -- all sorts of youth and injuries and blah, blah, blah, but the bottom line is that we haven’t found that edge that was a difference-maker for us last year.”

They’ll keep searching for us, with Peralta as one of the team leaders. He finished the day with 1,001 career strikeouts.

“This won’t be his last strikeout milestone,” Murphy said.

Monday was a day on which both managers had an appreciation for how far Peralta has come in his career. Guardians skipper Stephen Vogt was rehabbing a shoulder injury in 2018 when Peralta made his unexpected Major League debut for the Brewers at Colorado.

He was supposed be pitching for Triple-A Colorado Springs at the time, but an illness scratched Chase Anderson from his scheduled start and prompted a call for Peralta, who responded by striking out 13 Rockies and taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning of a Brewers victory on Mother’s Day -- with Peralta’s mom and future wife (and mother of his two children) watching in the stands.

“He's good,” Vogt said. “The fastball plays up. It might say 95, but it's 98, 99 coming in. It's elite extension. He doesn't throw his offspeed for strikes very often. So for us, again, be on the fastball and hope you recognize the spin and lay off it.

“But he knows how to pitch. He's off to a great start this year. He's awesome.”