May 25: The Brewers have officially announced the signing. Teheran will start tonight’s game against the Giants. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports the specifics on Twitter. Teheran will make $1.5MM plus $1MM in incentives.
May 23: The Brewers have agreed to a Major League contract with free-agent righty Julio Teheran, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Teheran, a client of Mato Sports Management, opted out of a minor league deal with the Padres yesterday.
Teheran, 32, figures to step into an injury-depleted Brewers rotation that just saw lefty Eric Lauer join fellow southpaw Wade Miley and right-hander Brandon Woodruff on the injured list. Beyond that trio, depth options like Aaron Ashby and Jason Alexander are also on the 60-day IL, leaving the Brewers with a current rotation of Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser and Colin Rea.
Once one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, Teheran began his career with a terrific four-year stretch (2013-16) in Atlanta that saw him post a 3.33 ERA over 795 2/3 innings. Along the way, he made a pair of All-Star teams and finished fifth in 2013 NL Rookie of the Year voting. He remained a solid starter from 2017-19, but his command began to worse in that time and his velocity started to slip as well.
Upon departing the Braves after the 2019 season, Teheran inked a one-year deal with the Angels but was limited to just 31 1/3 innings — during which he posted a ghastly ERA north of 10.00. He allowed one run in five frames for the 2021 Tigers but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since. Teheran split the 2022 campaign between the independent Atlantic League and the Mexican League before agreeing to a minor league pact with San Diego this past offseason.
While Teheran’s bottom-line numbers with the Padres’ Triple-A club in El Paso this season are unsightly — 40 innings, 5.63 ERA — there’s also some cause for optimism. His 24.3% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate are both solid marks, and he’s pitched well over his past four turns: 21 1/3 innings, 3.74 ERA, 23-to-8 K/BB ratio. In fact, outside of one meltdown against the Mariners’ top affiliate on April 21, Teheran has generally been solid in El Paso. Subtract those eight runs and three innings, and his ERA would drop all the way to 4.14. Any pitcher looks better if you look past his worst start, of course, but Teheran has been good for five to six innings and three or fewer runs in six of his eight starts this year.
The notion of signing Teheran isn’t as exciting as it might’ve been a half decade ago, but the Brewers have been decimated by injury and he’ll give them a stretched-out, ready-made rotation option who’s had some big league success. The Brewers have had their own share of successes in terms of rehabilitating veteran pitchers who’ve fallen on hard times, as evidenced by Miley, Gio Gonzalez, Brad Boxberger and others. For now, they’ll hope that Teheran can step onto the staff and help shore things up while their injured trio of veterans is on the mend.
Oh 😮
As the cop on South Park would say, this is a real “stretch”! While I’d love to see Teheran recapture some magic, it seems highly unlikely he’ll do so. The Brewers will probably pick up Corey Kluber too if the Red Sox DFA him after his next start.
Okay strategy boys! Road trip time. Stops to include: David Price and Rick Porcello. We already got Teheran, so 1/3 of the plan is complete! Haha! Nothing can stop the hope dope float! Go Brewers!
Goodluck, JT…would’ve been nice to see the “vintage” you throwing for the brown and gold. May your season be injury-free and successful except against the Friars. Hahaha
Nice!
Me and Julio moving up from the schoolyard…
Excellent reference and something I forgot about.
Well I’m on my way
I don’t know where I’m going
I’m on my way
I’m taking my time
But I don’t know where
@Curly Was The Smart Stooge
When I think back on all the crap I learned in highschool, it’s a wonder I can think at all…
I am surprised that the pitching-challenged Phillies didn’t make Julio T an offer.
Maybe they did?
Dang it, wanted Braves to sign him.
Don’t know if he was the guy, but the reluctance to call Soroka up or sign someone on the cheap while running the bullpen in the ground early kinda makes you scratch your head.
Are the Brewers starting pitchers really that bad?
Three of our opening day starting 5 are injured. The Crew is treading water the best they can until they and other injureds can return.
Wow! Didn’t realize. Best of luck with JT. Always liked him and hope he can eat up a few starts for you guys.
Woodruff,Lauer,Ashby,Alexander,Miley are on the injured list they are running out of rotation arms
Yes. Even Burnes gave up 4 home runs last night. It’s been brutal…
Their starting pitchers are done to 2. 2 were planned to be bullpen this season that make 4 remaining. 2SPs were already out for the season before it began. I’d be shocked to hear that another team has suffered more days/games lost than Milwaukee’s planned starters-replacement options in minors.
A lot of these guys may return late in the season, but what’s the roster going to look like when trade deadline passes? Brutal position to be in for GM Arnold. Burnes or Peralta drop to IL 60days or longer it’ll be packing it in for the trade season and tanking post trade deadline.
Damn, that was fast!
More and more of the articles say the results aren’t great but the underlying numbers say he’s striking enough guys out so he must be doing fine
In todays game of swinging out of shoes to hit Home Runs strikeout numbers can be misleading. It is not very difficult to get swing and miss out of hitters when you work below the knees or above the letters
There are guys who strike out guys that don’t do “just fine.”
Just saying.
He will sign with all 30 teams at some point this year lol
Hope he comes out throwing like he did 5 years ago, hate watching good pitchers go down with arm injuries and not recover
The Brewers have George Costanza?
Im not sure what theyre thinking. It is like AA batting practice with Teheran now. Probably better off with Robert Gasser starting
Issues with Gasser is not on 40man and has a future with Milw. Having 6-7guys on 60 day with 4 eventually returning requires a 40man spot when they do. Teheran or someone removable with no future can be a band-aid 40man usage that is easy to kick off when say Woodruff or Miley make their return. I have no idea on Frelick’s return from AAA injury but he’d be here when Mitchell was lost for the season. Frelick isn’t on the 40man yet. Just a huge $#!*show ruining the team’s season.
Frelick was also only hitting .232 with a .639 OPS when Mitchell got hurt.
15 game sample. One that I dunno, maybe playing through his thumb injury that shelved him helped cause.
He wasn’t making a strong case to be brought up for any reason. Expect him to be joined in Nashville with Wiemer in a week when Urias comes off the DL.
Frelick was exceptional at AAA in a longer sample size in 2022. So again a 15game small sample towards a player that will fill up box scores with 3-4 hits in a single game at any moment. Thumb injuries though…well it decimated Braun. So Frelick’s career may be in jeopardy before its even starts. Typical for young Brewers nearing huge impact.
Yeah, those 46 games last year was certainly big enough of a sample size to prove that he was ready.
If 46 games is a big enough sample size, the Brewers might as well release Joey Wiemer right now, since he’s only hit .197 in 48 games, an even bigger sample size.
Right over your head. You can’t fix stupid.
So you admit you can’t fix yourself. Good deal.
He’ll be eviscerated.
not exactly.
Desperate times call for desperation action.
How are there not 100 better options than Teheran?
I sometimes wonder, how much validity is given to watching someone pitch vs. The weight given to the thought that the player performed up to some level in the past.
I can’t imagine seeing pitchability, stuff, and results from some players, and saying “yep looks better to me than x “. What data do some players have that keeps getting chances to continually not perform well?
My understanding is he doesn’t need any prep time before making a start. Brewers are desperate for pitching with all the injuries. They need an arm NOW. Not in a week or 2 after some ramp up time.
Will he get shelled? Quite possible. Is that better than making a bunch of 40 man roster adjustments (again) for a minor league guy who might also get shelled because he’s not quite ready for the show and would set him back further? Yes.
And he may have been the first..or only..available vet to pick up the phone. So it was sort of irrelevant what the comparisons were with whoever else was out there.
I was hoping the Braves would sign him as depth, as they need pitching, bullpen games don’t cut with over 100 games left.
Good luck to Julio, I hope he can do well. If he wins 50% that’s all you need.
A lot of Braves fans wanted him gone when he was a Brave.
Wow, I didn’t know he was still playing.
He’s a bit like Roger Dorn….Wish you had him 10 years ago!
From a crappy start to the season at AAA to an MLB contract and game start in no time. Wait, What?
Good luck to Julio. He may have a good season yet left in that arm. The Brewers have really been hurt this year. It would be great if this works out.
BTW….he’s 2-0 3.60ERA this month in last 3 starts at Triple-A El Paso(15IP 17H 7BB/16K, again in the minors tho!) He last threw May 17th(71 pitches)
expect DF’a article of Teheran soon
Today 5ip 1er 1bb 4 singles. You can’t ask for much more from the guy. Of course, you can’t expect him to give up 1er every time.
It’s too bad the offense didn’t go to work for him and he gets hung with a loss for giving up 1 run.
Probably sometime in July when Lauer, Woodruff and Miley are back.
yikes
Cannot believe he’s only 32. Thought he was from another generation.