Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Julio Teheran threw his third injury rehab game on Tuesday and had the best outing of his recovery.
Teheran went to the injured list on July 30 with a right hip impingement. After recovering for the first three and a half weeks of August, he began a minor league rehab assignment with High-A Wisconsin on Aug. 25, pitching three innings and giving up three hits and a run. He struck out four, didn’t walk a batter, hit one and gave up a homer.
He was promoted to Triple-A Nashville and was lit up in an Aug. 31 start at Durham, giving up seven hits and four earned runs in 2.1 innings. He struck out four, walked one, hit a batter and gave up a home run.
How Did Julio Teheran Look in His Latest Start?
Tuesday, pitching at home against Memphis, the affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, he earned a win with five innings of one-hit ball. He gave up one unearned run, struck out three, walked three and hit a batter.
Teheran’s velocities and spin rates were on par with his pre-injury levels this season.
| Velocity | Spin rate | |||
| Pre-Injury | Tuesday | Pre-Injury | Tuesday | |
| Sinker | 89.8 mph | 89.8 mph | 2150 rpm | 2152 rpm |
| Curve | 77.1 mph | 77.2 mph | 2620 rpm | 2693 rpm |
| Cutter | 86.1 mph | 87.1 mph | 2256 rpm | 2288 rpm |
| Fastball | 89.2 mph | 89.6 mph | 2290 rpm | 2310 rpm |
| Changeup | 83.2 mph | 83.0 mph | 1514 rpm | 1405 rpm |
Despite matching his velocity and spin rate, the sinker seems to still be an area of attention for Teheran. He threw it 60% of the time in the game, compared to 38% of the time prior to the injury, and he seemed to struggle with control.
With so many sinkers, his proportions of other pitches fell.
| Pre-Injury | Tuesday | |
| Sinker | 37.9% | 59.7% |
| Curve | 15.3% | 8.3% |
| Cutter | 28.9% | 15.3% |
| Fastball | 10.5% | 8.3% |
| Changeup | 11.2% | 8.3% |
Teheran also seemed to tire as the game went on. In the first three innings, nearly half of his sinkers—11 of 26—topped 90 mph. That fell to 5 of 17 in the fourth and fifth inning. His spin rate also fell off. He had six of 26 sinkers with a spin rate below 2100 in the first three innings and six of 17 in the final two.
Teheran got 10 outs by ground ball. Six of them came on sinkers, as did the grounder that was misplayed for an error and later scored. Two came on changeups, one each on the four-seam fastball and cutter.
There was one lineout, on a sinker, and no fly ball outs. The RBI single was a line drive hit off of a cutter.
That’s a much higher ground ball percentage than the 41.5% he’d shown pre-injury with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Memphis was able to hit Teheran harder after going through the order once. In the first two innings, no ball was hit harder than a 91 mph exit velocity. Four of the five hit balls in the third and fourth had higher velocities, topping out at 104 mph. Two of the five batted balls in the fifth were over 96 mph as well.
Julio Teheran got swings and misses on his curve, striking out Ivan Herrera in the first and change, to strike out Nick Dunn in the second. After not getting any swing and misses in the next two innings, he recorded three in the fifth, none on strike three. One was a foul tip on a fastball to Moises Gomez. He got Kramer Robertson to chase a cutter, and Cesar Prieto missed on a sinker.
Is Julio Teheran Ready For a Return to the Milwaukee Brewers?
Not knowing how he felt physically during or after his latest start, the numbers indicate that Teheran seems to be close to a return. His pitches are moving the way they did pre-injury. His stamina isn’t quite there yet but seems close. The control appears to be the remaining item on the agenda and may be something the team chooses to have him work on at the MLB level. A cautious approach would be to have him make one more start for Nashville, but a return to the active roster with the Milwaukee Brewers would not be a reckless move either.
