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Yankees Outright Tanner Tully

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April 4: Tully went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Because he’s been previously outrighted, Tully has the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency. However, he intends to remain with the Yankees, MLBTR has learned.

April 1: The Yankees announced that left-hander Tanner Tully has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to right-hander Jake Cousins, who was previously reported to be joining the team.

It’s a quick turnaround for Tully, 29, who was in the big leagues just long enough to put his hat on a rack before picking it back up again and then leaving the way he came. The Yanks added him to the roster two days ago and he has now been designated for assignment without appearing in a game.

Since he didn’t appear in a game, that means his major league track record is still just three games he appeared in for the Guardians in 2022. Last year, he signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and posted a 5.64 ERA in 91 Triple-A innings. He was released in August in order to join the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, then made 11 starts for that club with a 2.92 ERA.

He signed another minor league deal with the Yanks this winter and got called up when the club used a lot of its relievers in the first few games of the season. Tully got a roster spot to give the club an extra arm but eventually wasn’t needed and will now be quickly removed. The Yanks will have a week to trade Tully or pass him through waivers. He has a previous career outright and would have the right to elect free agency in lieu of accepting another such assignment.

The Opener: Lorenzen, Robles, Doubleheader

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A week into the 2024 season, here are three things to follow around Major League Baseball today:

1. Michael Lorenzen makes another rehab start:

This evening, Michael Lorenzen will make his second rehab start for the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate of the Rangers (per Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News). He threw 50 pitches in his first rehab appearance and could throw 65-70 today. If all goes well, Grant notes that Lorenzen could be activated next week; the earliest he can return from the 15-day IL is Tuesday. When Lorenzen rejoins the rotation, he is likely to push out Cody Bradford, who earned the No. 5 job this spring.

2. MRI results for Victor Robles:

After injuring his hamstring on Wednesday, Victor Robles is set to undergo an MRI today. Pending the results of the scan, it’s possible the center fielder will need at least a short stint on the injured list; both Mark Zuckerman of MASN and Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post speculated as much last night.

If Robles does indeed hit the IL, expect an announcement from the Nationals sooner rather than later. The team will take on the Pirates this afternoon at 3:05 pm CT, while manager Dave Martinez will host a pregame press conference at noon. What’s more, the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings play today at 12:05 pm CT, and as TalkNats points out, their lineup announcement could suggest who (if anyone) is headed to Washington to replace Robles on the active roster.

3. Mets, Tigers face off in doubleheader:

There are only six games on the docket in Major League Baseball today, and the Mets and Tigers will face off in two of them. After getting rained out on Tuesday and Wednesday, the two teams will play a doubleheader beginning this afternoon at 11:10 am CT. The second game will begin approximately 30 minutes after the first one wraps up. The Mets (0-4) have now been sitting on a winless record for several days, while the Tigers (4-0) are the only team left standing with a perfect record. Adrian Houser of the Mets and Casey Mize of the Tigers will take the mound in game one, while Detroit will bring up Matt Manning and New York will bring up José Buttó (per Mike Puma of the New York Post) as the 27th men to start game two.

Voters Reject Stadium Tax For Royals And Chiefs

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Voters in Jackson County, Missouri voted overwhelmingly against a sales tax measure that would have given money to the Royals and Chiefs, per reports from Dave Skretta of the Associated Press and Mike Hendricks of The Kansas City Star. 58% of voters were against the measure with just 42% in support.

The Royals currently play in Kauffman Stadium while the Chiefs play in Arrowhead Stadium, with both facilities sitting next to each other as part of the Truman Sports Complex. The Royals are hoping to build a new stadium at a new location, revealing some plans back in February. The Chiefs are hoping to stay at Arrowhead but were hoping to secure funding for renovations. Sam Robinson of Pro Football Rumors recently took a look at the news from the Chiefs’ perspective.

The proposed measure would have replaced an existing three-eighths of a cent capital improvements sales tax, which was approved by voters in 2006, with a new three-eighths of a cent sales tax that would run through 2064. Per the proposal, the money from that tax would help pay for the Royals’ planned new ballpark and renovations of Arrowhead.

Royals owner John Sherman said he was “deeply disappointed” with the result but didn’t reveal what his next steps would be. “We will take some time to reflect on and process the outcome and find a path forward that works for the Royals and our fans,” he said.

Owners of sports franchises often dangle the threat of leaving town as a means of hopefully extracting public money for building or upgrading stadiums. This is something Sherman did in recent weeks, per Hendricks. “This is about sustaining ourselves as a major league city,” Sherman said last month. “There’s lots of cities that would love to have these franchises.”

Per this week’s reporting, Sherman has backed off of that stance, saying that it was an idea that came from political strategists. “Somebody smarter than me finds that is a message that resonates,” he said to a question about the threat of leaving Kansas City. “But I answer that question with, ‘This is my hometown.’”

The club could alter their proposal to voters but it didn’t seem as though Sherman had a strong appetite for that in the wake of yesterday’s results. “There is no redo of this campaign,” said a joint letter from Sherman and Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt. “This is not going back on the ballot in November. There is no plan B.”

Per the reports from Skretta and Hendricks, voters were against the plan for various reasons, including the lack of financial details and the potential impact on downtown businesses, while some felt the money could be better spent on other priorities like affordable housing or public transportation. The Royals also initially proposed two possible spots for relocation, one on the eastern part of the downtown and the other in Clay County, Missouri, across the Missouri River. They eventually scrapped both of those and settled on a different downtown neighborhood known as the Crossroads, but the plans for that site were still considered to be lacking in detail.

Kauffman Stadium opened in 1973 and is the sixth-oldest of the 30 stadiums in Major League Baseball. Fenway Park opened in 1912, the Cubs began playing in Wrigley Field in 1916, Dodgers Stadium opened in 1962, Angel Stadium in 1966 and the A’s began their tenure at the Oakland Coliseum in 1968. Assuming the A’s successfully move to Las Vegas in the coming years as planned, the Royals will move up to fifth on that list.

The current lease for both the Royals and Chiefs runs through January 31, 2031. The Royals had planned to move into their new stadium for the start of the 2028 season but it’s possible this setback may force them to change that target.

NL Central Notes: Candelario, Donovan, Taillon

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Reds third baseman Jeimer Candelario took an early exit from Wednesday night’s contest with the Phillies. He appeared to hurt himself on a swing in his final at-bat, and while he smacked a double on the very next pitch, he continued to grimace from second base. After the game, manager David Bell said that “hopefully” it was nothing more than “hyperextension of the elbow” (per Bally Sports Cincinnati). He said the team does not believe the injury is serious, but they will reevaluate Candelario on Friday before their series opener against the Mets.

Not so long ago, the Reds appeared to have a playing time crunch in the infield. However, Noelvi Marte’s 80-game suspension and Matt McLain’s shoulder surgery cleared up the logjam. If Candelario requires an IL stint, Cincinnati’s infield depth will suddenly be tested. Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand can play third base, but they’re already playing regular roles in left field and at first base, respectively. Santiago Espinal, acquired in a trade with the Blue Jays late this spring, is another option to fill in at the hot corner.

In other injury news from around the NL Central…

  • Brendan Donovan was also removed mid-game on Wednesday. Leading off for the Cardinals, he was hit by a pitch in the very first plate appearance of the game. Several innings later, he was hit again, and this time, he did not return to left field in the bottom half of the frame. The second pitch hit him on his throwing elbow (per John Denton of MLB.com). Donovan, a versatile utility player, has played six of his seven games in left field this season. The Cardinals already have three outfielders on the IL – Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, and Dylan Carlson – and can hardly afford to lose another.
  • In more positive injury news, Jameson Taillon is progressing well as he recovers from a stiff lower back. According to Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, the righty’s live batting practice session went well on Tuesday. He is set to make a rehab start on Sunday. If all goes well in his rehab appearance, he could still be on track to rejoin the Cubs in mid-April; two weeks ago, manager Craig Counsell suggested mid-April was the earliest Taillon could return (per Lee).

Padres Tried To Trade For Luis Arraez, Jesus Luzardo

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A year after spending north of $400MM in free agency, the Padres spent a total of $50MM on free agents this offseason, adding just $9.35MM to the 2024 payroll. Indeed, in an effort to slash the budget, president of baseball operations A. J. Preller made most of his biggest acquisitions on the trade market. The Padres added Michael King, Jhony Brito, Kyle Higashioka, Randy Vásquez, and Drew Thorpe from the Yankees in exchange for Juan Soto and Trent Grisham, and several months later, they used Thorpe as one of the headlining pieces in a trade for White Sox starter Dylan Cease. They also brought in Enyel De Los Santos from the Guardians in exchange for Scott Barlow.

However, those weren’t the only notable trades Preller pursued. Throughout the offseason, the Padres were reported to have shown interest in dealing for ace pitcher Corbin Burnes and outfielders Sal Frelick and Jarren Duran. Now, you can add Luis Arraez and Jesús Luzardo to that list of targets. According to Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin of The Athletic, the Padres made “a strong offer” for Arraez this spring, and they might have been even more interested in Luzardo – at least until they dealt for Cease in mid-March. 

While it never seemed all that likely the Marlins would part with Luzardo this offseason, he was the subject of significant trade interest. The Yankees, Dodgers, and Orioles were all reported to have checked in on the southpaw. Like all three of those clubs, the Padres were seeking starting pitching this winter, so it hardly comes as a shock that they had their on eye Luzardo. The 26-year-old made 32 starts last year with a 3.58 ERA and 208 strikeouts. His 3.69 SIERA would have led the Padres rotation, while many of his other numbers would have ranked second behind the now-departed Blake Snell. With a $5.5MM salary for 2024 and three full seasons of team control remaining, he was an ideal trade candidate, especially for a team looking to reduce payroll while still fielding a competitive roster.

That the Padres were so interested in Arraez is much more surprising. Like Luzardo, he is a young but proven player with a salary well below his value on the open market. However, he was not the subject of any substantive trade rumors over the winter. Moreover, he plays the infield, arguably the only area San Diego didn’t need to upgrade. While the Padres were linked to several outfielders on the free agent and trade markets, the Padres seemed set with Jake Cronenworth at first base, Xander Bogaerts at second, Ha-Seong Kim at shortstop, and, eventually, Manny Machado at third. That doesn’t leave much room for another All-Star infielder.

As Rosenthal and Lin suggest, the Padres might have hoped to trade Cronenworth and play Arraez at first. However, Cronenworth’s seven-year, $80MM contract that began this season simultaneously makes him inexpensive (in terms of annual salary) yet still rather difficult to trade. Alternatively, the Friars might have been more worried about Machado’s ability to play third base this year than they let on. They could have been planning to move Bogaerts back to shortstop, slide Kim over to third, and plug Arraez in at second. When Machado was healthy enough to return, Arraez could have taken over primary DH duties. Finally, it’s possible Preller simply saw an opportunity to add a star talent on a low salary and chose to make an offer and figure the rest out later. Too much talent is hardly a bad problem to have, and the Padres seem to like stockpiling infielders.

Rosenthal and Lin do not suggest Miami was actively shopping Arraez. However, their report implies that Preller’s offer was enough to tempt Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix. Needless to say, Bendix didn’t pull the trigger, but according to Rosenthal and Lin, that was largely because he “feared [the Marlins] could not adequately replace Arraez.” The report does not address how close the Padres might have come to landing Luzardo before ultimately acquiring Cease; it’s not clear if Bendix ever seriously considered sending Luzardo to San Diego.

The Fish aren’t off to a good start if they’re hoping to contend in 2024. Still, they’re under no immediate pressure to trade either Arraez or Luzardo, arguably their two best (healthy) players. Arraez has another year of arbitration eligibility remaining in 2025, while Luzardo will be eligible for arbitration through the 2026 campaign.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports

Justin Verlander Scheduled To Begin Rehab Assignment On Sunday

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Astros right-hander Justin Verlander began this year on the injured list but is nearing a return. Manager Joe Espada told members of the beat, including Chandler Rome of The Athletic, that Verlander will throw a bullpen tomorrow and is scheduled to make a rehab start for Triple-A Sugar Land on Sunday if the bullpen goes as planned. The club believes only two rehab starts will be necessary, lining the righty up to join the major league club in about two weeks.

Rotation health has been a key focus for the Astros for quite a while now. Both Luis Garcia Jr. and Lance McCullers Jr. underwent surgery last year and are still working towards getting healthy. In the spring, each of Verlander, José Urquidy and Shawn Dubin suffered injuries that prevented them from making the Opening Day roster. In Verlander’s case, some shoulder soreness slowed his ramp-up early in spring and put him a bit behind schedule.

That left the Astros with a rotation consisting of Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown, JP France and Ronel Blanco. That group has been throwing well, with Blanco throwing a no-hitter on Monday, but the club is 1-5 regardless with the bullpen responsible for all five of those losses. France is currently on the paternity list but expected back with the team shortly.

The 41-year-old Verlander wasn’t quite able to replicated his 2022 Cy Young-winning form but had a strong season in 2023 nonetheless. After posting a 1.75 earned run average in 2022, that number jumped to 3.22 last year. Perhaps more concerning, his 27.8% strikeout rate fell to 21.5% while his walk rate dropped from 4.4% to 6.7%. Maintaining that excellent form was going to be a tough task, especially as Verlander pushes beyond his 40th birthday, but he managed to still post strong results.

When Verlander is back, the Astros may have to make a tricky call of who to bump out. Each of the five starters currently in the rotation has options, but Valdez and Javier are well established in the big leagues at this point. Brown has 180 innings on his major league track record now with a 4.50 ERA but better peripherals. He has struck out 26.9% of batters faced, walked 8.4% and kept 54.5% of balls in play on the ground. His 4.06 FIP and 3.65 SIERA suggest better results may be possible going forward. France has a 3.87 ERA in 142 major league innings while Blanco has a 4.14 ERA in just 67 1/3 frames but, as mentioned, he just threw a no-hitter a couple of days ago.

Verlander is in the final guaranteed year of the contract he signed with the Mets but he’ll have a $35MM player option for 2025 if he can throw 140 innings this year. As part of last year’s deadline trade, the Mets agreed to cover $35MM of Verlander’s 2023 and 2024 salaries as well as half of the player option if it vests.

Dodgers Place Jason Heyward On Injured List Due To Back Injury

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The Dodgers announced that outfielder Jason Heyward has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to lower back tightness. His roster spot goes to outfielder Taylor Trammell, who was claimed off waivers from the Mariners yesterday.

Heyward, 34, hasn’t played in any of the club’s past three games due to a stiff back. He was sent for some imaging and manager Dave Roberts relayed yesterday that the scans came back negative, but it seems the Dodgers will give him some time to rest up. IL placements can be backdated as much as three days if the player hasn’t been playing. Assuming the Dodgers backdated Heyward’s transaction, he could be back in a week if he heals up quickly.

After years of struggles with the Cubs, Heyward had a bounceback year with the Dodgers in 2023. He hit .269/.340/.473 for a wRC+ of 121, though largely in a platoon capacity. The left-handed hitter stepped to the plate 349 times against righties but just 28 times against southpaws. The Dodgers were impressed enough to re-sign him on a one-year, $9MM deal over the winter.

The Dodgers started out this year using Heyward in right field against righties, with Teoscar Hernández in left field. With a left-handed starter on the mound, Hernández would take right with Chris Taylor in left.

Trammell hits from the left side and could perhaps take over the role Heyward was in previously. He has struggled in the big leagues but has actually been decent with the platoon advantage, hitting 14 home runs in 261 plate appearances while walking at an 11.1% rate. He has struck out at a 36.4% clip and his batting average isn’t pretty but his .193/.292/.434 line against righties does translate to a 106 wRC+. At Triple-A last year, Trammell slashed .256/.396/.540 against righties compared to .239/.331/.425 against lefties.

The Dodgers could also opt for the more experienced Taylor to take over Heyward’s playing time, despite him hitting right-handed, as he has fairly even platoon splits in his career. He’s hit .256/.331/.424 against righties for a 106 wRC+ and .247/.332/.444 versus lefties for a 110 wRC+. But having Trammell will give them another option and perhaps allow the club to move Taylor around to other positions. Trammell is out of options and may end up designated for assignment again when Heyward gets back. If Trammell manages to stick around, he has under two years of service time and can be controlled for another four seasons beyond the current campaign.

Cardinals Notes: Gray, Thompson, O’Brien

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The Cardinals are still waiting for right-hander Sonny Gray to make his regular season debut with the club, after he suffered a right hamstring strain during the spring. His path back to the big leagues got muddied, literally, when this week’s weather prevented his ramp-up from going as planned.

Per John Denton of MLB.com, Gray was going to make a rehab start for Triple-A Memphis at Indianapolis today but the club changed plans due to the heavy rain in the forecast. Instead, the new plan is for a 50-pitch simulated game today in Springfield, Missouri, followed by a Triple-A start on April 9, which was around when he was hoping to be back with the big league club. But he’ll now be looking at a return on April 14, assuming a normal four-day rest period after his outing for the Redbirds.

When Gray is ready to return, he should slot into the rotation next to Miles Mikolas, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Steven Matz in the rotation. That will likely mean that left-hander Zack Thompson gets nudged out. Thompson started today’s game for the Cards and Denton noted that his velocity is way down, more than three ticks below his previous start. Whether that’s indicative of some kind of undiscovered injury remains to be seen.

If he’s healthy, Thompson has an option and can be sent to the minors when Gray gets back. He could also be moved to the bullpen to take over the long relief role currently held by Matthew Liberatore, as Liberatore also has an option and could be sent down for work in the Triple-A rotation.

Gray was signed to a three-year, $75MM deal in the offseason after posting a 2.79 earned run average with the Twins last year. He combined a 24.3% strikeout rate with a 7.3% walk rate and 47.3% ground ball rate, finishing second to Gerrit Cole in American League Cy Young voting.

Elsewhere in Cardinal news, right-hander Riley O’Brien was placed on the 15-day injured list on the weekend due to a flexor strain. But earlier this week, Denton relayed that an MRI showed no structural damage.

O’Brien will still require a shutdown period before ramping back up, but that’s clearly a better alternative to requiring surgery and missing extended time. Acquired from the Mariners in November, O’Brien has just 3 1/3 innings of major league experience but had a 2.29 ERA in 55 Triple-A innings last year. His 13.6% walk rate was scary but he also struck out 37.7% of batters faced and got grounders on 57.1% of balls in play.

Pirates Acquire Joey Bart

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April 3: It’s right knee inflammation for Delay, per Stumpf.

April 2, 9:41PM: Delay is going to be placed on the 10-day injured list, according to MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf (via X).  This will open up room for Bart on the active roster, and while the nature of Delay’s injury isn’t yet known, it now explains the Pirates’ interest in acquiring Bart.

8:32PM: The Pirates have acquired catcher Joey Bart from the Giants for minor league righty Austin Strickland.  FanSided’s Robert Murray (X link) was the first to report Bart’s move to Pittsburgh, while NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic (via X) reported Strickland as the return piece of the deal.  The Pirates announced that right-hander Colin Selby was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Bart.

The second overall pick of the 2018 draft, Bart has hit .219/.288/.335 over 503 plate appearances since making his Major League debut in 2020.  Buster Posey’s decision to opt out of the 2020 pandemic-shortened season gave Bart an early look in the bigs, and after playing in only two MLB games in 2021, it seemed like Bart would get a clear shot at becoming the Giants’ next catching stalwart after Posey’s retirement.

However, Bart’s struggles in 2022 resulted in Curt Casali and Austin Wynns getting a good chunk of the playing time behind the plate.  With some injuries also setting Bart back last season, Patrick Bailey (himself a first-round pick in 2020) stepped in and seized the starting catching job, which made it seem like only a matter of time before the Giants moved on from Bart entirely.  That reality came to pass last weekend when Bart was designated for assignment, as San Francisco hadn’t been able to find a trade partner during the offseason.

There is some irony that Bart is now heading to Pittsburgh, as the Bucs seemingly had an overload of “catchers of the future” just a few months ago.  With Henry Davis as the first overall pick of the 2021 draft and Endy Rodriguez emerging as a top-100 prospect, it seemed like the Pirates were considering using Davis in the outfield in order to use Rodriguez behind the plate and get both players into their lineup.  Those plans changed when Rodriguez tore his UCL in winter ball action, and he’ll miss the entire 2024 season recovering from surgery.  Davis has now started most of the Bucs’ games at catcher this season, with Jason Delay working as a backup.

This arrangement comes in the wake of Yasmani Grandal’s season-opening IL stint due to plantar fasciitis, as Grandal was signed to a one-year, $2.5MM deal to assume at least a part-time role behind the plate.  Since Bart is out of minor league options, he’ll have to stay on the Pirates’ active roster or else face the DFA wire again if Pittsburgh wants to send him down to Triple-A via an outright assignment.

Given how Grandal’s return will shake this catching situation up once more, it would seem like there’s plenty of fluidity within what the Pirates might do behind the plate.  Delay could be sent to Triple-A, essentially replacing Ali Sanchez (who elected free agency last weekend) as the top depth option in the minors.  Or, Davis might conceivably go to Triple-A if the Pirates want to let him work on his catching defense in a less-pressurized environment than the big leagues.  There’s even some chance Pittsburgh could also perhaps use Davis, Delay, and Bart on the 26-man roster, with Davis getting work at DH or in the outfield in order to create playing time for the other two catchers.

Selby posted a 9.00 ERA over 24 innings for the Pirates last season, in his first taste of MLB action.  The righty was a 16th-round pick for the Bucs in the 2018 draft, and he has worked almost exclusively as a reliever since the start of the 2021 season.  Scouts regard the hard-throwing Selby as having plenty of stuff but with shaky control, as evidenced with his 30.8% strikeout rate and 16.5% walk rate over 30 1/3 innings with Triple-A Indianapolis last season, en route to a 3.86 ERA.

Over Selby’s 24 Major League frames, he had a 26.3% strikeout rate, but again struggled to limit free passes in posting a 13.2BB%.  It seems like there’s a decent chance Selby might be claimed off waivers by an interested team, as the 26-year-old seems to have some upside if he can limit his walks.

For San Francisco, there’s some obvious disappointment in the official end of the Bart era, as the team ended up getting very little return on a second overall pick.  Hindsight is always 20-20, though it’s easy to wonder what president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi might’ve been able to obtain for Bart had the catcher been traded earlier in his career, though rival executives might’ve also wondered if something was up if Zaidi had been too eager to offer a seeming top prospect.  It is also fair to wonder if Bart’s career path might’ve been different if he hadn’t suffered hand and thumb injuries after being hit by pitches in 2019, or if he’d had the benefit of a smoother minor league development path in a world where either the pandemic doesn’t happen, or if the Giants didn’t move him so quickly to the majors.

The return for Bart is a lottery ticket in Strickland, who was an eighth-round pick for the Pirates in last summer’s draft.  The University of Kentucky product has yet to begin his pro career, and Baseball America’s scouting report cites his three-pitch mix, headlined by a fastball that usually sits in the 93-94mph range.  Strickland generates a lot of grounders and he has mostly worked as a multi-inning reliever, so this might hold appeal to a Giants team that has traditionally been creative with its usage of pitchers.

Mets To Sign Julio Teheran

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1:23pm: It’s a one-year, $2.5MM deal for Teheran that comes with an additional $450K available in incentives, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports. With six days of the season already elapsed, that’d come out to $2.419MM in prorated, guaranteed money for Teheran (assuming the deal becomes official today). The Mets are in the fourth and final tier of luxury penalization and are in their third straight year of penalization, meaning they’re paying a 110% tax on any dollars spent. That’s about $2.661MM in taxes, bringing the total tab on Teheran to about $5.08MM for the Mets.

12:50pm: The Mets have agreed to a deal with free agent righty Julio Teheran, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Mato Sports Management client opted out of a minor league deal with the Orioles late in camp and has been exploring the market for new opportunities. It’s a big league deal for Teheran, per SNY’s Andy Martino, who reported earlier in the week that the Mets were in talks with the veteran right-hander.

After barely seeing the big leagues in 2021-22, the 33-year-old had a somewhat resurgent year with the 2023 Brewers — where current Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns previously ran baseball operations (and served in an advisory capacity last year). The former Braves top prospect tossed 71 2/3 innings with a 4.40 ERA in Milwaukee, striking out just 17.4% of his opponents but offsetting that lackluster mark with a sterling 4.5% walk rate.

Formerly one of the game’s top-ranked prospects, Teheran broke into the majors and hit the ground running in Atlanta. From 2013-14, he posted a 3.03 ERA in 63 starts. Over a seven-year period in Atlanta, spanning 2013-19, Teheran worked to an overall 3.64 ERA in 1334 innings. He’s never missed bats at an especially premium level, but Teheran has long had strong command and, at least earlier in his career, excelled at avoiding hard contact.

That said, last year’s showing in Milwaukee was the first time Teheran has had any consistent success since making 33 starts with a 3.81 ERA for the 2019 Braves. He signed a one-year deal in Anaheim prior to the 2020 season but was shelled for an ERA north of 10.00 in his 31 1/3 frames.

The Mets’ rotation has been hit hard by injuries early on. Kodai Senga suffered a shoulder strain early in spring training, leading to a nearly month-long shutdown. (He’s since resumed throwing.) That injury pushed Tylor Megill into the starting rotation, but he suffered a shoulder strain on his own in his first start of the season and is now on the injured list and in the midst of a weeklong shutdown period himself.

Presumably, given that this is a big league deal and that Teheran got some work in with Baltimore during spring training, he’ll be an option to step into the fifth rotation spot in Queens. Teheran pitched 13 1/3 official innings with the Orioles in camp, holding opponents to five runs (3.38 ERA) on nine hits — albeit with a lackluster 10-to-7 K/BB ratio in that time (17.5% strikeout rate, 12.3% walk rate). If he indeed steps onto the starting staff, Teheran will be joined by Jose Quintana, Adrian Houser, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino.

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