Report: David Peralta, Diamondbacks Agree to 3-Year, $22M Contract Extension

The Arizona Diamondbacks and outfielder David Peralta reportedly agreed to a three-year contract extension Friday.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the deal will pay Peralta a guaranteed $22.00 million with $1.25 million in incentives.

Peralta, who has spent his entire six-year MLB career with the Diamondbacks, avoided arbitration. He had been set to become a free agent after the 2020 season.

The 32-year-old Peralta has been a consistent contributor for Arizona throughout his career, and he is just two years removed from his best season.

In 2018, Peralta hit .293 and set career highs with 30 home runs and 87 RBI en route to winning his first Silver Slugger award. While that power production seems like an outlier, he has four seasons with double-digit homers and at least 57 RBI in his career.

Peralta's numbers dropped off in 2019, in part because of multiple injuries that limited him to 99 games, but he still managed to hit .275 with 12 home runs and 57 RBI, and he won his first Gold Glove.

In 670 career games, Peralta owns a .290/.346/.478 slash line with 85 home runs, 330 RBI and 329 runs scored.

After Arizona dealt first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to the St. Louis Cardinals in December 2018, Peralta spent most of last season batting third or fourth in the order. That figures to be the case once again in 2020 with Ketel Marte and Eduardo Escobar serving as his primary protection.

Since finishing second in the NL West and reaching the playoffs in 2017, the D-backs have fallen short of the postseason in each of the past two campaigns. They went 82-80 in 2018 and improved slightly to 85-77 last season.

The addition of longtime San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner should give Arizona a boost, but the biggest key to the Diamondbacks contending for a playoff spot may be the health of Peralta, Marte and Escobar, who make up the heart of what could be a top-notch lineup.