Braves trade rumors: Any Julio Teheran trade would require big haul

The Braves unlocked the door to their fire sale not long ago, and scouts stampeded into the store. The excitement was stirred by the announcement that everyone except Freddie Freeman was cleared to go for the right price. With an asset like starter Julio Teheran in the mix, this was intriguing news.

However, in this case, “the right price” is, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Glove, “a small fortune:”

The Braves will listen on Teheran, who is 2-6 with a 2.85 ERA in 13 starts, but it will cost a small fortune to get him. Teheran is 25 and reaching the peak of his career. There’s split opinions within the Braves organization on whether it’s better to trade Teheran or build around him, since he can’t become a free agent until 2020.

Those numbers get even better when you chop off the first two weeks of the season. In his last start, Teheran went 8 IP with 2 ER, 8 SO, and 1 BB, throwing 76 of 110 pitches for strikes.

Days ago, Jon Heyman wrote that the Braves “fully expect” to keep Teheran, but if Cafardo is to be believed, that expectation represents only one sect of the Braves front office (“They expected to keep Shelby Miller, too,” Heyman points out).

Teheran has massive appeal to anyone looking for starting pitching, outside of the cost it would take to acquire him. His tantalizing run suppression over 82 innings of work this year is especially impressive given that it's the Braves’ offense supporting him and the Braves’ defense backing him up. The market isn’t bubbling with starters at the moment, and he would be under team control through 2020.

So really, it's just a matter of a contending team drunk with power stepping in and dropping a busload of prospects off in Cobb County (Where they would wait with everyone else for their new home to be built, presumably). Cafardo mentions that teams have already come to the Braves about Teheran, but mentions no suitors in particular.