The Mets have designated right-handed pitcher Julio Teheran for assignment, according to an announcement from the club. In a corresponding move, the team selected right-hander Dedniel Núñez from Triple-A Syracuse.
Teheran and the club just agreed to a one-year, $2.5MM deal last week, but Tim Healey of Newsday reports today that the contract was non-guaranteed and prorated with Teheran collecting $54K for his brief stint on the roster, though Healey also adds that Teheran’s prorated deal will continue to pay him while he’s in DFA limbo.
Teheran took the ball for the Mets last night against a tough Atlanta lineup and clearly struggled. It took him 68 pitches to get through 2 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs via six hits and two walks, striking out three in the process.
The Mets were put in a position to need an extra starting pitcher by some recent injuries. They knew long ago that David Peterson had hip surgery and wouldn’t be an option early in this season, but then Kodai Senga was diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his throwing shoulder in late February. That left a spot open for a depth arm like Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi or Jose Buttó. Megill won that job but then suffered a right shoulder strain after just one start.
Neither Lucchesi nor Buttó could be recalled right away to replace Megill since they were optioned to start the season and an optional assignment comes with a 15-day minimum stay. An exception that rule is allowed for a double-header, which is why Buttó was allowed to be the club’s “27th man” and pitch on April 4, but he wasn’t allowed to stay after due to the 15-day rule. Teheran filled that rotation job for one outing but it seems Buttó will be coming up this weekend once he’s eligible, per Tim Healey of Newsday and Mike Puma of The New York Post.
The Mets will now have a week to trade Teheran or try to pass him through waivers. The latter scenario will largely be a moot point since Teheran is a veteran with well over five years of major league service time, meaning he can reject an outright assignment in favor of electing free agency.
Teheran had a bit of a bounceback year in 2023, tossing 71 2/3 innings over 11 starts and three relief appearances with a 4.40 earned run average. He only struck out 17.4% of batters faced but limited walks to a 4.5% clip. Those results aren’t super exciting but still were a bit of a return to form for him. He didn’t pitch in the majors at all in 2022 and was only allowed to take the ball once in 2021 after he posted an ERA of 10.05 for the Angels in the shortened 2020 season.
Prior to that, he was a mainstay in the Atlanta rotation, making 222 starts from 2013 to 2019 with a 3.64 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. Last year’s performance with the Brewers wasn’t quite at that level but was a turnaround after three challenging years. Given the enormous amount of pitching injuries around the league right now, it’s possible that Teheran will garner interest from clubs in search of innings.
Núñez, 28 in June, has not yet appeared in a major league game but he does have one year of major league service time. That’s because the Giants selected him from the Mets in the 2020 Rule 5 draft but he required Tommy John surgery before the 2021 season started and he eventually spent all of that year on the injured list, with the Giants returning him to the Mets after that year.
He split 2023 between Double-A and Triple-A with a 5.53 ERA in 57 innings, striking out 26.8% of batters faced but also walking 12.3%. He has thrown 3 1/3 scoreless innings at Triple-A so far this year, with five strikeouts and just one walk. Back in February, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs mentioned Núñez as a pitcher who could debut for the Mets this year thanks to his high 90s heat, but also expressed concerns about the lack of control.
Wait wtf
They just signed him for $5 mil
Hahahahha
The muts are back
The never ending freak show circus
More like 8 mil w all the penalties they are under. Cut him for deez nuts too lol
And literally all of ya’ll were saying “great signing! Give him a chance! Solid vet!”
And i was like yo thats millions you can flush down a toilet
Enough already. No one anywhere said it was a great signing,. Everyone trashed, or at least questioned it.
The $5m figure is already including the taxes and penalties. The actual contract was $2.5m
mets got solid arms in AAA
Bring em up see what they got
Scott, vasil, hamel
Mets arent going anywhere this yr
Might as well have a look @ the prospects
I know cohen is a billionaire
But signing useless garbage vets is a detriment to the team & development of young guys
@Johnny utah Since the Mets aren’t going anywhere in 2024 or 2025, bringing up prospects and burning a year or two of control makes little sense.
The Mets don’t have any serious pitching prospects other than Scott above rookie ball. Letting them develop in the minors makes the most sense when mediocrities like Taijuan Walker are getting 4/72m in free agency.
@straw
mets have a chance at 500 in 2025
and considering dbacks won a pennant with a 500 record
i think mets could legit make noise next yr if they bring up scott and hamel for the rotation. by next season jett, acuna, gilbert should all be in the majors. mauricio will be back from injury. vientos is crushing it in the minors. but some guys need time to adjust to the majors. not everyone is acuna immediately. if you bring em up halfway thru this yr they might get the seasoning they need to compete next year. or bring em up in april 2025 like holliday. dont waste a yr of service time. but stop signing trash vets for millions. do y’all realize the more they spend the more they pay in luxry tax and the more they lose draft spots? their pick dropped 10 spots last year. and again this year. stop spending already for f sake
Read the article. It was a non-guaranteed contract, they owe him 54k.
It’s a lot more fun for these geniuses to not read the article and then throw around numbers that aren’t even close to reality
Or they posted before the article was updated to include the details …
The original article on MLBTR on April 3rd states that Tehran’s contract is guaranteed. That article also contains a link to Anthony DiComo’s tweet announcing the signing that also states that it was a guaranteed contract.
Now MLBTR is saying it is not guaranteed (although the original posting of this article did not include those details, hence some of the comments here).
Seems to be some confusion about this.
Reading is hard.
They literally signed him until they are allowed to call up Butto. Really a common baseball move that cost them 54k for an emergency spot start. Not really sure what you are getting worked up over.
The signing was pro-rated. $54,000 for the time on the roster, plus the DFA time. The Mets took a gamble flyer while limiting the risk.
Ya know its real easy to defend this AFTER it became known it was a non guaranteed signing
But at the moment of the signing, during his time with mets and even after they DFAd him nobody mentioned it was non guaranteed. That little tiny insignificant detail was revealed later.
In any event muts are trash. Keep signing garbage vets. They spent millions on JD, wendle, bader, dj stewart, ji man choi… for f sake they have an entire farm system full of young bats and arms. Instead they take a “flier” on teheran?? And ya’ll continue to defend this pathetic poorly run organization? Dang i genuinely feel sorry for ya’ll ignorant sad hopeless fools
So this is how you defend your instant jumping on some news to trash talk the Mets? You talk rationally for two paragraphs excusing yourself and then finish with a third paragraph of more trash talk about the Mets plus an ad hominen attack on their fans. That doesn’t speak very well about who you are.
God bless you.
That was fast lol
Jimmy John Fast
Guess Cohen is sick of the garbage and is actually doing something about it. About damn time lol
Why sign him for 5 million then ?
Yes, it was a bad move by the Mets. That said, it wasn’t $5 million…no idea where you got that number. It was $2.5 million plus $400,000 in incentives (that he will clearly not reach). Its actually a split contract that would pay him $150,000 in the minor leagues.
As a veteran, he has the right to refuse the assignment, and the Mets would be on the hook for the entire $2.5 mil minus anything he gets if another team signs him. (probably the $770K minimum).
Its up to him to decide what is more valuable at this point: the money, or the opportunity to keep pitching and get called up again later this year.
with the CBT tax, the Mets are paying 5 million
The $5m figure is what it costs if you include the 110% tax rate they paid on it. But either way, it doesn’t matter, because it’s a sunk cost and the only question now is whether they think he’s worth a roster spot, and a lot of teams chase the mistake by doubling down and giving them more bad starts. If they didn’t like what they saw, cutting ties is the right move.
matt
Good question if you’re trying to make a point
Terrible question if you’re actually asking your average MLBTR reader to be coherent.
Well because I’m reality it’s costing them a 100k for a spot start until they are allowed to call up Butto.
Nah
He’ll just replace him with other garbage lol
#49 will be available in Citi Field game worn kiosk by Friday night.
What an organization
5 million for 2.2 innings, great work if you can get it!
2.4M. The rest is fees paid to the leagure.
I guess you don’t read articles. It’s only costing them 54k for the start. His contract is guaranteed.
The article has been updated several times throught the day; as the 54k was not referenced at the time of my comment.
Cohen dancing around, playing with his money again and not caring when it doesn’t pan out.
Mike Clevinger was available for close to the same amount. Sure he would have lasted more than a week
Julio Teheran’s contract is pro-rated.
Not exactly. It is a split contract, and those are usually pro-rated. But Spotrac/Cot’s Contracts lists the $2.5million as guaranteed.
The pslit probably only applies if he accepts the minor league assignment. He has enough service time to refuse assignment, become a free agent, and still get the money.
I made the presumption that he would accept the assignment. He’s barely had a ST as a late-signer. I doubt any team is going to claim him after his first start results.
He was in ST with Baltimore. He only became an FA on 3/20. For the most part, I agree with you – he should need a tune-up or two after three weeks off.
But before he signed, there was a report that he wanted a major league gig and was unwilling to tale a minor league assignment. Admittedly, that does not jibe with him signing a split contract.
Perhaps the spoken agreement with Stearns was that they would give him a shot in the big league first, then go from there. Either way, I’m not presuming anything.
In a regular MLB contract Teheran would be guaranteed his full salary even if he refuses the minor league assignment. And a new MLB team would only be on the hook for league minimum.
But on a split contract I believe the team only pays if the player accepts the minor league assignment, and typically at a reduced rate. If the player refuses the assignment he’s a free agent and can negotiate a completely new contract with any team.
The 1 start will cost the Mets ~100k.
mlb.com/glossary/transactions/non-guaranteed-contr…
@Geofft No he only gets pro-rated portion since it’s a split deal
I bet this was an agreed arrangement- he goes to AAA, gets 2 starts there, and comes back…
Brewers could use him
They shouldn’t have signed him in the first place!!!
Must be he can’t refuse an assignment. And with the contract it makes it less likely he gets claimed. If someone does claim him, then you’re off the hook for salary
So basically, it’s functioning like he has an option year
If he can refuse an assignment, then it makes no sense, unless there’s something in the contract that voids his salary if he refuses an assignment
Any team claiming him would pay the pro-rated league min.
Maybe the Orioles will bring him back in some sort of Washy Washy Scheme
wonder if..
DFA’ing him see if another team bites to let go of some of the salary. But if no one bites, putting him in AAA for a handful of innings to get game action he didn’t get in spring to get him to game speed.
2023 seemed to be a over all respectable year. Not great but not the worst for a 5/6th pitcher
Remember when MLB used to give players more than one game to audition? The roster churn these days is frantic.
And if you’re getting 1 game as the audition, how about not vs. the team you were with for 9 years and you faced twice (with MIL) last year, where the 2nd time in Truist he was hammered (3 HR; inc. Ozuna, whom also HR’d against him yesterday). Honestly, his stuff would play better against most everyone else with Bryce Harper being the exception.
I’m confused on the rationale given in this article to bring in Teheran instead of Lucchesi or Butto. If Megill was injured, wouldn’t putting him on the 15 day IL allow for one of them to come up instead of signing Teheran?
I believe they used that spot for Reed Garrett, may have overlapped with the Ramirez suspension. But yes, in theory they could have used that spot for a starter.
So technically, they could have recalled either pitcher but chose not to do so.
@ Baseball77 Yes, you’re right. Butto would seem to be the better move. That said. Butto, despite his recent major league success (in a small sample), has been chronically inconsistent and/or medioce at AAA. Its only a matter of time before whatever caused those results surfaces in the majors as well. The club’s priority with Butto, IMO, is to develop him into a regular starter for next year when he is out of options and the rotation is losing 3 or 4 pieces. Not use him as quad-A roster filler. There will be more opportunities to call him up later in the season.
Lucchesi was held out of most of ST because of issues with arm strength. He pitched well in his first AAA start, but got hit hard in his second.
My guess is that this whole charade was to pacify Teheran’s stated desire for a big league opportunity, while eventually getting him into his minor league salary of $150K. He can then sit there as a depth piece, and also work with Stearns’ pitching lab people who managed to get serviceable results out of Teheran last year in Milwaukee.
There is some weird rule not allowing Butto to be called for 15 days.
When a player gets optioned to the minor leagues, he cannot be recalled for 15 days, unless it is for an injury replacement. Megill was injured and placed on the IL. Not sure why neither could be called up when the rules would have allowed it. I think the writers missed something on this article.
This is a comedy. With so few good pitchers for 30 teams and they talk about expansion? Crazy!
Expanding means being able to stretch the definition of “good”. Problem solved!
Ha ha!
Contraction can be a wonderful thing.
He’ll end up in the Mets minors.
He’ll get a second chance with pitchers falling left & right…
Blah blah blah
That’s what they get for signing a crappy pitcher
How does that song go? Bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb, bomb…Teheran.
CD
Muted
Mr. Filihok–you do realize that in baseball lingo a “bomb” is a home run, right. So, as usual, I was making a pun, not a political statement.
I wouldn’t mind getting paid $54K for a few days of work.
This is the David Stearns we know and love.
This smells like a potential addition to the Red Sox rotation for better or for worse.
Or Braves, Astros, Guardians, Marlins, Nationals just from this week’s injuries. Might be easier to list teams who haven’t recently lost a starter.
Don’t believe the Braves would want him back… yikes
The Mets pitching staff is now officially Ded-as a door-niel. And Teheran once again proved to be war-torn. Just the Mets operating with the Reset button. ( Resetting for 2025).
The kiddie corps are taking their lumps early on. Both Vasil and Hamel have been hit hard early. It’ll be Butto or bust for now.
What the kids have done in just one start is irrelevant. They were never going to be considerations this early in the season.
Butto should be the top depth option right now, and he should be given at least 2 or3 starts, even if he struggles. But Lucchesi may also be a consideration. (One great start, one bad one thus far). If Megill is not back by the time those two options are exhausted, Teheran could accept a minor league assignment, Kranick has started his rehab assignment.
He looked good at the end of last year and wasn’t entirely terrible in his one start for the Mets. No team has enough depth in their pitching rotation. Somebody will pick him up.
I don’t understand why GMs make a decision based on so little innings.
Just speculating -Part of the reasons could be limited roster spots (DFA and all the specific CBA rules)and short term pressure to win at any level.
Players become nomads bouncing between multiple teams but sometimes can accept a minor league position as a last resort.
Logistical career hassles, paying their dues I guess until they can put up decent statistics. If $ is still better than a traditional job they’ll put up with it.
How do you make a good correct judgement on a player after less than 3 IP or 30 at bats?
Educated Guess/a scouts guy instinct in conjunction with coaches.
You are liable to miss out on some players that need some time to show their best talent. Last year about 70 IP with a 4.5 ERA with MIL and 2024 ST with BAL.
Julio doesn’t have to but I bet the NYM hope he agrees to go to AAA for a month or 2 and if not brought up he can opt out and be a free agent again keeping decent amount of $
They’re not basing it on a few innings, but on everything he shows and doesn’t show throughout his time with the team. If he simply no longer has it, then what he does in 3 innings won’t matter, even if the results are tolerable.
If he’s not getting movement, throwing strikes, missing bats… then there’s no need to wait for him to give up 2 HR every 3 innings.
I called him a has been when they signed him and got laughed at, the owner must have been desperate to sign him, he should have retired, I do feel bad for the guy, at least he gave it a go.
We’ll take him in Cleveland.
If only Trevor Bauer’s last name was Baez, he’d be in baseball right now. Julio Urias will get a deal before him. Its plain and obvious, the MLB holds the hispanic players to lower standards. Thats why you see guys like Familia, German, Chapman, Reyes, etc. get so many opportunities to play yet a CY Young calibur pitcher is sitting at home right now eating potato chips
You’re on the wrong article.
@young. I think he’s on the wrong meds
Urias the domestic abuser is finished just like the incel king.
Imagine putting Julio up against his old club, many of the current hitters faced him whilst he was with the Brewers so they had familiarity.
Imagine giving him 1 start and dfa’ing him, very fair indeed. Julio will be better off being away from this organisation and finding an opportunity elsewhere. I feel sorry for Acuna’s brother being in this organisation, hopefully he can escape as well.
The Mets are a mess