Los Angeles Angels: What Julio Teheran brings to the table
By Clint Manry
On Thursday afternoon, the Los Angeles Angels added another arm to its rotation, signing 28-year-old righty, Julio Teheran.
As my Call to the Pen colleague Bill Felber surmised on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Angels have spent a vast majority of its payroll on the offensive side of the ball in recent years. Felber noted in his insightful write-up that the Halos have already earmarked a whopping $138 million to a group of just five hitters for the 2020 season, as newly-signed superstar Anthony Rendon, Mike Trout, Justin Upton, Albert Pujols, and Andrelton Simmons all make up 80% of LA’s 2020 payroll.
Over the years, it has been quite obvious where the Angels’ priorities lie (granted, injuries played a part) and the team’s preference for offense over pitching was illustrated quite vividly this past season as the Halos ranked seventh in total runs scored in the American League while finishing with the worst starting pitcher ERA (5.64).
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However, on Thursday the Angels made another addition to it’s starting staff, signing former Atlanta Braves lifer Julio Teheran to a one-year, $9 million contract. And while Teheran isn’t quite a move-the-needle addition to the rotation, he does brings something extremely valuable to the Halos: durability.
Teheran has spent his entire career with the Braves, signing with the team in 2007 as a 16-year-old from Columbia. From the very start of his pro career, the 6-foot-2 righty has demonstrated an unwavering ability to stay healthy and… as they say… eat innings. After debuting at 20-years-old in 2011 and earning a two-game cup of coffee in 2012, Teheran started his run as a top-of-the-rotation arm in 2013, managing at least 30 starts in every season since then.
Most starts since 2013
- Jon Lester — 224 starts
- Jose Quintana — 224 starts
- Max Scherzer — 223 starts
- Julio Teheran — 222 starts
- Rick Porcello — 219 starts
As the Braves go-to Opening Day starter for six-straight seasons — a franchise record — Teheran seemed to be on the verge of becoming an ace in 2014, finishing with 3.4 WAR and 186 strikeouts in 221 innings, all while maintaining a 2.89 ERA (all career-bests). His consistency was widely appreciated, though the Braves always (maybe unfairly?) hoped for more from Teheran.
After a 3-WAR 2016 season, Teheran has quickly went from a frontline starter to more of a backend laborer in the last four seasons. Deteriorating fastball velocity and an increased walk rate has taken its toll on Teheran’s numbers. Once a pitcher who could consistently sit in the mid-90s, Teheran fell below the 90 mph mark in 2019, averaging just 89.9 mph with his mostly two-seam, sinking fastball.
Teheran is also one of the last sinkerballers in the majors, still going to the basically extinct offering over 20% of the time (22.3%) this past season (a career-high for him); that shouldn’t be a problem for the Los Angeles Angels, though, as Teheran’s sinker was the fourth-best fastball (FanGraphs mixes two-seamers, four-seamers, and sinkers together) in the majors in 2019, according to FanGraphs’ Pitch Value (20.7).
As a bit of a surprise, Steamer is extremely skeptical about Teheran’s upcoming performance in 2020. The projection system has him pegged for a 5.44 ERA with a career-high 32 home runs allowed, basically one of the worst seasons of his career. Considering he managed to provide a rather impressive bounce-back season in 2019, more than doubling his WAR total from the previous year (0.7 to 1.6), I simply don’t buy it.
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Regardless, the Los Angeles Angels just signed a pitcher that has garnered a well-deserved reputation for staying healthy. Teheran may not be who he was five seasons ago, but for a team whose pitchers have routinely underperformed, he provides this aspiring Angels teams some much-needed stability.