The pitcher's Mets tenure ended at the trade deadline, but sources tell ESPN he arranged the June meeting that eased a rift between the club's two franchise players. Soto denies the meeting happened.
Freddy Peralta was a Met for a matter of months. According to multiple sources who spoke to ESPN, his most durable contribution had nothing to do with pitching.
Peralta arranged a private sit-down earlier this season between Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, an attempt to defuse a rift between the two players the franchise has built itself around. Since that June meeting, sources told ESPN, the two have interacted far more often and far more easily.
The rift itself was an open secret before it was confirmed. The Post's Mike Puma reported in November that the relationship had been cold through Soto's first year in Queens — a season that ended in a historic collapse and no playoff berth. Owner Steve Cohen acknowledged it directly on "The Show" podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on July 1, while framing it as "last year's story" and saying he had been told the two were getting along much better.
The three principals describe the meeting three different ways. Peralta confirmed it took place but declined to discuss what was said. Lindor acknowledged it while playing down its significance, describing it in Spanish as the kind of conversation the team's Latino players have all the time and declining to go into detail.
Soto denied it outright. Speaking in Spanish, he said there was no meeting and no confrontation, while agreeing that this season has gone better and that he and Lindor have gotten along well and learned from one another. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns declined to comment to ESPN.
Whatever the precise shape of the conversation, the clubhouse read on Peralta is consistent. Even through the worst statistical season of his major league career, he was regarded internally as a connector — which is part of what made his departure to the Rays at the trade deadline, in the middle of a broad selloff, land harder than his numbers would suggest.