Despite being obvious sellers, the Atlanta Braves are not going to give away ace pitcher Julio Teheran at a low price.
The Atlanta Braves are clearly not going to be contenders this season. At 15-35, they have the worst record in the National League and their full attention is on the future. They will be sellers at the MLB Trade Deadline, but ace pitcher Julio Teheran is not going anywhere unless the other team is willing to pay up in major league talent.
In his Full Count video for Fox Sports, Ken Rosenthal mentions the talented Teheran as an obvious trade target for teams. However, Rosenthal spoke with Braves general manager John Coppolella who told him that the Braves will only trade Teheran if “he could get a hitter of comparable quality and age in return.”
“The days of us trading players like Teheran for prospects are over. We need to get better at the major league level. We would have to be overwhelmed to move Teheran,” Rosenthal contined to quote Coppolella of saying.
Teheran struggled a bit last season, but the 25-year-old Braves’ ace is enjoying a bounce-back 2016 season. Through 11 starts, Teheran is currently sitting with an impressive 2.77 ERA and a strong 22.1% strikeout rate.
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Teheran is an extremely talented pitcher who is really starting to hit his stride this season. He is so good at such a young age, and is under a team-friendly contract through the 2019 season. The rebuilding Braves should be building their ball club around players like Teheran, not trading them away.
I understand why rumors around guys like Teheran exist, but he is arguably the most important player on their major league roster. The Braves are not going to trade him away for a handful of prospects just to push back their timeline even more.
With a crop of talented prospects expected to hit the big leagues relatively soon, the Braves will be back on track before we know it. They are undoubtedly going to be much bigger contenders at that point if Teheran is still on their roster.
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