The Chicago Cubs today signed outfielder David Peralta to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. So he should be reporting soon with an eye on winning a bench job.
Peralta, 36, was a long-time Diamondbacks outfielder, posting a 115 wRC+ from 2014 through 2020. The last few years, he’s been closer to a league-average bat playing good corner outfield defense, which is still a useful player. But the reason he’s settling for a minor league deal is that, last year, he hit just .259/.294/.381/82 wRC+ with the Dodgers. Good left field defense gets you only so far when you’re a corner outfielder hitting that far below league average.
If he can bounce back, you could imagine a world where Peralta, who crushed righties before last season, is a rotational lefty bat. He can supply a little power and a good contact rate against certain righties, rotating among DH, left field, and right field, when guys need a rest.
One concern you’d have is that, specific to his down results in 2023, Peralta really struggled against fastballs after crushing them the rest of his career. Of note, he also faced the highest average fastball velocity of his career – so was it flukey, and he just happened to face a disproportionate volume of plus velocity in 2023? Or has age caught up with his bat speed a bit? We’ll see.
Ultimately, though, it’s a minor league deal an a non-roster invite. If David Peralta looks great this spring and the roster is such that he makes sense as an additional lefty bat off the bench? Great. Low-cost veteran move. But if he is indeed struggling with velocity, and/or the roster has filled out with lefty bats in other ways, then you move on.
(I guess let me state explicitly the implicit: no, I don’t think this has anything to do with Cody Bellinger in any direction. It’s just extra lefty depth, in case this, in case that.)