Mets DFA Julio Teheran and his 13.50 ERA, meatball-throwing self

The Mets designated Julio Teheran for assignment, calling up Dedniel Nunez to replace him on the active roster. The team clearly could use another bullpen arm right now and when Teheran’s spot in the rotation comes up again, they’ll be able to promote Jose Butto, as the 15-day window of his being optioned to the minors will have passed.

Of course, the whole dog-and-pony show with Teheran could have been avoided if they called up Butto when Tylor Megill went on the IL. While the rule is in place about recalling someone who has been optioned, there’s a clause which allows it for replacing a player placed on the IL.

Instead, the Mets called up Reed Garrett. They were able to get Butto up for a start as the 27th-man in a doubleheader. Now, hopefully, they can get him up for good in four days. In the meantime, they’ll run a 9-man bullpen, sending down the guy who pitched multiple innings (or Nunez) four days from now.

There are things that don’t have a great chance of working out that you take a chance on, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. That’s the most charitable way to look at signing Teheran. My opinion is that the odds of this working out were less than one percent. In my mind, it’s a positive to cut ties with him as soon as they did.

Teheran was once a really good pitcher and we shouldn’t gloss over that fact. But that’s many years in the past. Now the question is if the Mets will be quick to pull the trigger if another player on the team underperforms.