Could Julio Teheran be a Fit for the Texas Rangers?

Can a former Atlanta Braves star be a bounce back candidate for a young Texas Rangers rotation?

Right-hander Julio Teheran was once a highly touted pitching prospect for the Atlanta Braves. Now, he could make an interesting potential rotation option for the Texas Rangers. After making his seventh Opening Day start this past March, Teheran was left off of the Postseason roster until former Rangers reliever, Chris Martin, was injured. The Braves later declined his $12 million dollar option after the season making him a free agent. Could Teheran be of any interest to the Texas Rangers?

The Good

So, what’s so good about Julio Teheran? Consistency. Teheran has made 30 plus starts each year since 2013, which was his first full season in the big leagues. For a young and unproven rotation in Arlington, to have a veteran pitcher who can grind out innings and make starts would be a solid addition especially considering the injury history for many of Texas’ rotation candidates. He has kept his ERA manageable, averaging a 3.67 ERA over his nine year career and has posted at least 170 innings a season since 2013. Teheran has cross the 200 IP threshold twice, in 2014 with 221.0 and in 2015 with 200.2 innings.

He’s a two-time All Star, placed fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2013 and has four different postseason appearances. Over a nine year career, he has a 1.211 WHIP and a 7.8 SO/9 on top of being still just 28 years old. There’s still potential for the young righty, and a change of scenery may help unlock the full extent of that potential.

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The Bad And Somewhat Ugly

The part that no-one wants to talk about, the bad and at times, the ugly. Teheran’s walks over his career have gone up considerably. Prior to 2018, his walks topped out at 73. In 2018 he walked 84 batters, and in 2019 he walked 83. That’s not a positive sign for a young pitcher that is in the peak of his prime. His fastball velocity has also decreased over the years. When he first came up, he was a flame-thrower, touching the mid to high 90’s fairly consistently. Over the past few seasons, his average fastball velocity sits at 89.9 mph. That is concerning despite that fact he has managed to get outs with his sinker. While those can be overlooked considering he’s just 28 and has a fairly impressive resume, seeing fastball velocity drop at this point in his career raises red flags, which no doubt factored into why Atlanta opted to decline his option.

Why Texas?

Teheran would be a good buy low option for a team looking to add at least one more starter. He’s still young and wouldn’t command a huge contract making him very appealing as a fourth starter type. He’s an innings eater and with a change of scenery or philosophy he could unlock some more of that former top-prospect potential. If Texas chooses not to pursue the big fish in Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg, he would be a solid fit for a still youthful and rebuilding team.