Padres News: Bob Melvin Talks About RHP Julio Teheran's Opportunity this Spring
The Padres signed former Braves All-Star Julio Teheran to a minor-league contract earlier this month, and the big right-hander got an invitation to spring training. Teheran made his debut with San Diego in Sunday's spring training game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Peoria, and it couldn't have gone better.
Teheran threw two perfect innings, striking out one and retiring all six batters he faced. After the game, Friars manager Bob Melvin was asked for his thoughts on Teheran and his outing.
"I think he's good. Bottom of the zone, top of the zone. He's got a low release point. He's got subtle movement right and left. When he shoots it up top, it plays a lot better. So this is a guy we were kind of excited about at mini-camp, and it's a real good first look for him."
Still, as a non-roster invite, Teheran is likely still a longshot to make the team out of spring training. But Melvin isn't downplaying the different ways he could help the team.
"Yeah, who knows? Whether it's length, whether it's starting, but he's doing some things a little bit differently now in his career. You look at his numbers, he's had a lot of success, and he did it at a really young age, so it's not like he's thirty— I don't think he's, what is he, 32? Yeah, so he's still got some baseball left in him."
A team can never have too much pitching, and a guy with Teheran's track record could be a very valuable piece in a variety of roles. San Diego has potential to have a very good starting rotation, but there are still a couple question marks with both Seth Lugo and Nick Martinez transitioning back to starting roles after being relievers most recently. Teheran could pick up some of the slack if either of those experiments doesn't go exactly the way the team is hoping.
The first step was that first spring game, though, and Teheran couldn't have asked for a better first impression.
