The Tampa Bay Rays were among the most aggressive teams ahead of the 2026 MLB trade deadline.

That aggressiveness played a role in Tampa Bay acquiring right-hander Freddy Peralta from the New York Mets.

Peralta made his Rays debut on Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies, and his performance fell right in line with the entire season.

Freddy Peralta continues to struggle

Headed into the bottom of the third inning, Tampa Bay had jumped out to a 5-1 lead, and Peralta had a chance to prove himself to his teammates with a shutdown performance.

Instead, Peralta allowed more runs (6) than outs recorded (5) in the remainder of his outing. Two homers and six runs later, Peralta was exiting his first Rays start with a horrendous final line.

Peralta lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on nine hits and striking out just three. The seven runs and nine hits are both the second most he's allowed in a start this season.

What exactly is the issue with Freddy Peralta?

When looking at Peralta's Baseball Savant page, it's actually quite difficult to understand what the real underlying issues are. 

Peralta's average fastball velocity is down just 0.6 mph, and most of the other important stats like strikeout rate, walk rate and hard-hit rate are all relatively similar. 

Whatever the issue is, Peralta won't have long to figure it out before the playoffs begin, a stretch where Tampa Bay will expect him to provide serviceable production to help with a deep postseason run.