Veteran right-hander Julio Teheran is opting out of his minor league deal with the Cubs, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Teheran signed with the Cubs back in April after a brief stint with the Mets earlier this year but now appears poised to return to the open market as a free agent.
Teheran, 33, has pitched in parts of 13 big league seasons since he made his debut with the Braves back in 2011. The right-hander first stepped into a full time role with the club as a member of their rotation back in 2013 and spent the next seven seasons in a mid-rotation role with the club, making at least 30 starts in each of those seasons and pitching to a 3.64 ERA (111 ERA+) with a 4.22 FIP overall during that time. That impressive durability allowed him to post the ninth-most innings among all big league pitchers across those seven seasons while making less starts than only Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, and Max Scherzer during that timeframe.
Teheran’s time with the Braves came to an end following the 2019 campaign, however, and he’s bounced between several MLB organizations in the five years since then. He’s pitched for the Angels, Tigers, Brewers, and Mets at the big league level during that time and spent the 2022 campaign out of affiliated ball, instead pitching in the Atlantic League and Mexican League that year. The right-hander’s results at the big league level have left something to be desired since he departed Atlanta; in 110 2/3 big league innings since the start of the 2020 season, Teheran has posted a 6.10 ERA with a nearly matching 6.11 FIP while striking out just 16.1% of batters faced.
While those results certainly leave something to be desired, Teheran’s 14-appearance stint with the Brewers last year, where he posted a league average 4.40 ERA with a 4.93 FIP in 71 2/3 innings, provided some reason for optimism that he could still be a useful arm at the big league level. That was enough to earn Teheran a one-year big league deal with the Mets in early April, although he only made one start for the club before being designated for assignment and returning to the open market. That’s when Teheran landed with the Cubs, who at the time were dealing with injuries to Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon in the rotation while veteran starter Kyle Hendricks was struggling badly.
Since then, however, Steele and Taillon have returned from the shelf to join Shota Imanaga in the club’s rotation and youngsters Ben Brown and Javier Assad have impressed in starting roles of their own, clouding Teheran’s path back to the big leagues in the Cubs organization. With the aforementioned quintet, Hayden Wesneski, and perhaps even Hendricks all ahead of him on the organizational depth chart, it’s understandable that Teheran would prefer to return to the open market in hopes of finding a club that can offer him a clearer path to the big leagues.
Teheran’s performance at Triple-A Iowa during his time with Chicago is unlikely to help him in that endeavor, as he struggled badly with an 8.82 ERA in 32 2/3 innings of work. Still, it’s certainly feasible to imagine a club in need of starting depth offering Teheran a spot in their minor league system, where an injury or two could create an opportunity for the 33-year-old to make his way back to the majors.
Bring him back Atlanta
Only with a time machine.
Don’t say that even jokingly
Go back to Atlanta you were underrated there
Orioles signed him in the off season if I remember correctly and they are having some issues with their rotation. There’s really nothing on the trade market, and Bradish made a really early exit from his game today and is pitching on a patched UCL brace. Might be worth a kick of the tires to get him either for starting depth or another long arm out of the pen.
Orioles have several pitchers better than Teheran, especially Albert Suarez, and should be in better shape when Kremer returns from the IL. If they go for a pitcher it will be a deadline trade for one of the better arms available.
And they are an injury away from being in serious trouble, as I mentioned Bradish who just piched his shortest outing of the year just yesterday. Kremer also has had a track record of injuries. And nobody is trading anyone right now, so what are they supposed to do if they suffer an injury between now and the trade deadline? Just not make a move because you said so?
List all of the pitchers the Orioles currently have that aren’t already in the starting rotation that are better than Teheran.
I’d rather see them call up Povich or McDermott than sign a guy who looked terrible in spring training with the club and has proven them right to have cut him in over 30 innings since then. Povich is 5-1 with a 3.18 ERA in AAA and his stuff is so superior to Teheran’s at this point in their careers. They can see what they have and if he needs more time than look at a trade for Luzardo, Blackburn, Gomber, Anderson or one of the many pitchers who will be on the trade block in the coming month. Plus, Kremer is expected back in three weeks.
Norfolk’s rotation is hot trash other than Povich & McDermott, so the O’s absolutely should call Teheran for depth. He should have just accepted the AAA assignment in March & he’d have already been in the big league rotation. But nooo.
I think that would be the move if another starter goes down for an extended period. I wouldn’t make the move to make these guys long men out of the bullpen and getting irregular workloads. That is a role for a guy like Teheran who could, in an emergency, spot start, and eat up innings for an overworked bullpen.
And if Kremer is due back in three weeks, why would you call up a promising young future starter to be a long man out of the bullpen for 3 weeks?
I already told you, teams aren’t looking to make trades right now, so you can forget that scenario.
Back to SD.
Was scanning MLBTR for vet SP released on MiL contracts. Any port in a storm, right?
Bye bye… no great loss. With Wicks coming back, Teheran isn’t even the #3 starter at Iowa.
Love to see him with the Rockies.
Would have to be an improvement in counsell’s hot mess bullpen
Two moves that would make the Cubs serious contenders but would really hurt their farm system, Mason Miller and Ryan McMahon.
The Cubs have the depth of the farm to make both moves and really make offers neither team would refuse.
I also think it’s time to clear some 40 man spots and add Edward’s to a split contract and Roberts (soon).
I think the Cubs could deal Canario and Davis for some solid bullpen help, ideally someone(s) with options.
The bullpen has put us in a free for all, Morel also isn’t getting the job done at third, Cubs need to upgrade there.
Agree Dras—-McMahon would be a good stop gap until Shaw is ready. It’s hard to fathom that a professional baseball team does not have a single viable third baseman in the organization that can play every day. None of the guys—Morel, Wisdom, Madrigal, Mastrobuoni can play more than sporadically….and I’ve come to your side—Wisdom is the best of the worst……
I know we all begged, pleaded with Uncle in January and February and March to get off the “all Morel needs is reps” bandwagon—and somehow Counsell went with it (and still is) and it’s nothing short of a disaster.
Forty four qualified third basemen for outs above average and defensive runs saved—and Morel is DEAD LAST of the 44.
Even worse–of the 154 qualified infielders—he ranks LAST there. He is quantifiably the worst infielder in baseball. And for some reason, he bats fourth and can’t hit either. It’s time to end that experiment.
McMahon is signed for three years, he could in a sense, make Shaw expendable.
Merryweather and Alzolay falling off crippled the Cubs pen. They have so much talent but guys are failing in roles they shouldn’t be put in. You take last years versions of Alzolay, Leiter, Neris and Merryweather along with Wesneski, Little and that pen is dominate. A lot of criticism on Jed but that pen should be a lot better and we cannot help injuries.
I was fine with Morel at third but it’s failing. He can still hit, hitting into some bad luck but he should be the super utility option, not third. Cubs need to fix third and they need to fix the pen otherwise this is a lost season… truth be told, with this rotation, wasting this season would be ill advised. The rotation can match anyone
Cubs Pitching is looking up. Wicks, Palencia, Brewer and Roberts all back pitching at Iowa with Arias and Eduardial Nunez also finally being added from Tennesssee. With Hodge, Miller and Little in Chicago there are a lot of good 40 man pieces that can be moved around. the Starting Pitching is solid and deep. Hoyer has painted himself with the hitters because he has no real options he can make due to NTC’s and expensive deals. He has no choice but to hope that the current group wakes up or he has to start dealing guys like Hoerner , Morel or Tauchman if he wants to clear spots for guys at Iowa. Shaw started out badly but has since raised his average from .200 to around .250 lately and the whole lower Minors started out badly but are playing way better lately. If Hoyer didn’t tie his own hands there are a lot of things he could do, But can’t now. The Cubs will wake up but if it takes a long time they might be facing a big uphill climb. What could have been, But isn’t is sad.
Cubs need to hit and improve defense. Nothing wrong with your rotation.
Their defense is fine actually outside of third base. The Cubs need more offense and fix their horrendous bullpen. Counsell is pulling all the wrong strings with the pen
Kind of goes to show you how darn good Merryweather was—his injury really jumbled a lot of stuff.
Here’s how the Cubs season has gone—two positions they haven’t had injuries—third base and catcher. We all know they have the worst collection of 3b in all of baseball and are in the bottom three or four at catcher.
Dansby’s injury has been crippling—first of all he played with it for two week and it is obvious that it has really affected him both at bat and in the feel—hard to play with a bum knee.
Not much Counsell can do when there are eight pitchers on the IL at the same time and he has to deal with probably a bunch of nagging stuff we don’t know about. He only has so many combinations and options and most of them aren’t good.
On the topic of wrong strings, Counsell still is using Tauchman at leadoff? Nico is their best hitter skills wise, the best base runner and kills it when leading off a game. Breaking news, when the Cubs were good, they were scoring in the first. When the Cubs were good, Nico was getting on base over 40% of the time in the first while boasting an OPS over 1.000.
I think Hoerner is still dealing with his hamstring. He doesn’t really sprint all out anymore and Swanson is more down than up. It’s time to start moving guys like Wisdom and Madrigal out( I know you like him and he’s OK but we need new blood). When the old isn’t working time for new blood. We’re stuck with Happ and Suzuki but Hoyer and Hawkins need to start moving guys around. Guys from Iowa need to move up and guys from Tennessee really need to move up. The whole Minor League system has guys that can be kicked up a notch.
I think his best shot to make and stay on a 26 man roster long term is with the blue jays and even with his numbers he would still be there 5/6 starter or long man right now
An incredible amount of miles on Julio’s 33 year old arm. He’s been pitching professionally since 2008.
Apparently the cubs are recalling David Bote for some reason. So someone is getting fired or possibly put on the 60 day IL