San Diego Padres: Reviewing the offseason and what could have been

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 02: Tommy Pham #29 of the Tampa Bay Rays warms up before their game against the Oakland Athletics in the American League Wild Card game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on October 02, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 02: Tommy Pham #29 of the Tampa Bay Rays warms up before their game against the Oakland Athletics in the American League Wild Card game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on October 02, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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Julio Teheran #49 of the Atlanta Braves. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Julio Teheran #49 of the Atlanta Braves. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

A better solution at starting pitcher

To be fair, the cost for starting pitching this offseason was absurd. And I’m only looking at free agents that were signed and trades that were made.

Doing that, getting Zach Davies may have actually been the best option.

But if the goal was to just get an innings eater at the back of the rotation, I would have rather seen them sign Julio Teheran.

He’s still just 29 years old and he’s thrown at least 174 innings in each of the past seven seasons with an ERA of around 3.75 during that stretch.

If you want to talk about a model of consistency and performance, Teheran is the obvious choice.

Now, I understand that Davies is younger, cheaper, and more controllable. But you also don’t have to give up two promising prospects to get Teheran.

The Anaheim Angels signed Julio to a one-year deal worth $9 million, which takes up a good bit of our remaining money.

Other options they could have considered include Alex Wood at $4 million, Rich Hill at $3 million, or Ivan Nova at $1.5 million.

Wood has a lot of upside, but probably not the guy we’re looking for if you want somebody to eat up innings.

I would have been all for Hill or Nova as guys to eat up innings at the back of the rotation, and they would have been cheaper than Teheran and Davies.

But for the sake of this exercise, let’s go with Julio, which leaves us $4-6 million to find another outfield bat.

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