Players are asked lots of questions during All-Star media-availability sessions. This Q&A with Julio Teheran was a bit more interesting than usual.
In the wake of John Coppolella saying flat-out “No. We aren’t trading Julio” in response to a Mark Bradley question, the Boston Herald noticed that Teheran wasn’t getting a lot of media attention on Monday – what with other pitchers named Arrieta, Syndergaard, Strasburg, Scherzer, and Fernandez all in the same room.
So Jason Mastrodonato decided to pay him a visit. It was almost as if he were trying to feel out Teheran’s thoughts about joining the Red Sox – or some other contender.
"“It’s really exciting,” Teheran said. “But I don’t really think about getting traded or being in the postseason. Obviously I want to be in the postseason, but I want to be on the team that I signed with, the team I am on right now. And if I get traded, I’ll try to do my best and get the team that I’m traded to to the postseason.” “It feels weird,” Teheran said. “I signed with the Braves, and I wanted to stay my whole career with them. But I know that’s not going to happen, or I can’t control it and it will happen any time."
Mastrodonato then spent the rest of his writing in an effort seemed to be trying to convince Boston fans that they could do a heckuva lot worse than Teheran in the trade market, noting that since signing his contract extension – you know, that extremely team-friendly deal – he’s only gotten better… with this season being his best yet.
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Frank Wren’s name came up, too: how he’s highly valued and trusted by Dave Drombrowski. Also that Teheran himself is good with Wren (“We have a good relationship”).
The title of this piece in the Herald is “Julio Teheran open to idea of trade to contender like Red Sox”. That might be a little exaggerated, but Teheran was at least polite to the writer and certainly could have left that impression.
Still, it’s not up to the Braves’ number one starter.
After hedging a bit for most of the last month, Coppy was blunt in response to the question from Bradley this week. That’s going to mean that some team is really going to have to blow Atlanta’s doors off to change this position.
For what it’s worth. it sounds like there’s at least one Red Sox writer that’s trying to lay that groundwork.
Of note – not that it means a lot – of all those star pitchers noted in that media room on Monday? Only Max Scherzer and Jose Fernandez also pitched in the All-Star game. Scherzer was the only one on the National League side who was able to match Teheran’s 1-2-3 inning.
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