ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
D-backs’ David Peralta traded to Rays for catcher prospect
The Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to send outfielder David Peralta to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for catcher prospect Christian Cerda, the team announced Saturday.
The 19-year-old Cerda is batting .315 with 12 RBIs and two home runs in 54 at-bats with the FCL Rays, a rookie ball affiliate.
The 34-year-old Peralta was the longest-tenured member of the D-backs and moves on from Arizona with his name high on the all-time franchise leaderboard in several categories. Peralta is third in games played, at-bats, plate appearances, hits and total bases, second in triples, fourth in RBI and sixth in runs scored, per Baseball-Reference.com.
This season, Peralta is batting .241 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs in 87 games played.
The outfielder is in the last season of a three-year, $22 million extension he signed prior to the 2020 offseason and is set to be a free agent this winter.
Peralta was originally signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher all the way back in 2004, but two shoulder surgeries later, he was released in 2009. He then spent over four years reinventing himself as an outfielder, a timeframe that included a stint of Peralta working at McDonald’s in 2011 to be able to afford a trip to his new independent baseball league team in Texas, according to Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller.
His lone link to MLB was a scout with the D-backs, one Peralta pestered consistently enough to get a workout with in 2013 after three seasons of playing independent league baseball.
That led to Peralta getting signed as a minor league free agent in July of 2013. Peralta quickly soared from Single-A to the majors within a year, and since his callup on June 1 in 2014, he’s been a mainstay in the D-backs lineup.
Peralta’s accolades across his nine years with Arizona include a Silver Slugger Award in 2018 and a Gold Glove a year later.
Without Peralta in the fold, the D-backs open up a long-term position in the outfield that will presumably soon be filled by 21-year-old Corbin Carroll, who is currently in Triple-A Reno and is the team’s top prospect. Arizona this season has already embraced a youth movement with rookie 22-year-old Alek Thomas and 26-year-old Daulton Varsho starting in center and right field, respectively.
