LA Angels: Which players will excel in a shortened season?

Angels who would excel in a shortened season: Julio Teheran

As a team that has struggled over the years to get consistent innings out of their starting pitchers, the Angels made a concerted effort to try and bolster their rotation over the winter. One such acquisition was Julio Teheran, whom Anaheim signed to a one-year, $9 million deal.

Teheran is stranger to taking the ball every fifth day, having made 30+ starts each of the last seven seasons for the Atlanta Braves. While he hasn’t been extremely consistent during that time period, the 29-year-old has been a serviceable middle-of-the-rotation arm, posting a 77-73 record with a 3.67 ERA, a 4.23 FIP, and a 7.8 K/9 ratio.

Like most pitchers, Teheran tends to trend upward as the summer rolls on and the arm loosens up a bit. However, things have also been pretty consistent for his first-half performances as well.

In 133 career starts in the first half of the season, Teheran has thrown 799.1 innings with a 3.72 ERA, a 4.41 FIP, and a 7.59 K/9 ratio. Opposing hitters have hit him to the tune of .237/.307/.399 and have just a 33.6% hard-hit rate against the right-hander in the season’s opening months.

If there is one area of concern for Teheran, it would be his walk rates. In the first half of the season, he averaged an 11.6% walk rate over each of the last two seasons, both well above his 7.9% career mark. However, he’s managed to work around that as well by limiting hard contact and inducing ground balls, to the rate of 39.3 and 40.6% in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

In terms of consistency, that is about what you would want to ask of a guy that doesn’t have a whole lot of time to get ready for the season.