Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: A Difference in Effort

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Three Cuts: Dealing Teheran path to impact bat? Beckham’s All-Star Case

… [ skipping the preliminaries … and the Beckham section. See the link above for the rest ] …

So under the guise of “comparable quality and age,” what level of bat would we be talking [in a trade for Julio Teheran]?

More from Tomahawk Take

The 25-year-old Teheran has a 7.9 WAR since breaking in full time in 2013, putting him in line with some intriguing similarly aged bats like the Marlins’ Marcell Ozuna (8.9), Nationals’ Anthony Rendon (8.9), Red Sox’s Mookie Betts (8.2), Rangers’ Elvis Andrus (7.8), Boston’s Xander Bogaerts (7.6), Mariners’ Kyle Seager (7.6) and Yankees’ Starlin Castro (6.7).

None of this is to insinuate that those are the names that could be looked at as returns, it’s just a perceived spectrum if we’re using Coppolella’s statement to Rosenthal as a guide.

The Braves could very well keep Teheran, whose contract and play make him valuable as the team looks to develop its own positional players and can utilize the right-hander as the anchor for its ultra-young rotation. But now that Coppolella has set the asking price, don’t expect the Teheran rumors to die down over the coming weeks.

[ Ed. note: of the names suggested, you could probably eliminate Ozuna, Rendon, and Andrus right away for reasons of (a) not wanting to face Teheran routinely within the division for 5 years, and (b) Andrus being a shortstop.

But again – as McCartney is suggesting here – and as I did on Saturday evening – these are the kinds of hitters that the Braves would be looking for in such a deal.

Kyle Seager would be a good choice… except that the Mariners kinda need him, and that (again) illustrates clearly the dilemma involved here – even if the Braves were willing to make a deal like this, teams are going to be very reluctant to give up what would undoubtedly be an integral part of their offense (no matter how bad their pitching situation might be).

One possible exception: the Red Sox have the best offense in the majors… easily… while their starting pitching ranks 22nd in ERA.

Other such disparities:

Pirates: 3rd / 15th
Cardinals: 4th / 19th
Orioles: 7th / 20th
Still watching the Astros… 24th in starting pitching while their offense is 20th, but clearly has potential. ]

Next: Lowering the Ay-bar

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