No question they made a mistake by not trading him. However, they might compound the mistake by not trading him now, even at a lower return that what they could have gotten back.
The supposition is that trading him now would be trading him at a low point. However, that assumes to a certain extent that he will get better or at least will get no worse. If he continues to decline then a year from now we may be looking back to today and saying "they should have moved him when they had the chance."
If the return is "good enough," and I think we are past the point of "must win the trade," then I think a smart FO would pull the trigger.
The obvious problem is that he's lost another tick off the FA, which is now averaging 90.9. It has steadily declined from 93.7 back in 2011, and the Braves missed the boat on seeing that. His FA is, quite simply, getting hammered.
I realize saying "they already paid the price of keeping Teheran, so they can't sell him now" is ignoring the principle of sunk cost, but I have to think it's reasonable to expect him to revert back to something closer to what he was than what he has been this season.
I just wish they would have traded him during the rebuild. What a foolish waste of a very valuable asset.
Accepting 50% of Teheran's 2014-2016 value is going to be a tough pill to swallow, and will be a tough sell to the fans.
The question becomes: what return constitutes "good enough"?
My assumption is Teheran has a surplus value in the $30M-$40M range and is worth a Top 50 prospect, even now. I don't want to see the Braves go for quantity over quality, ever, so I want a legit Top 50 guy...not a Top 100 guy plus some filler.
So the Astros have been mentioned as interested. This would be an excellent buy-low opportunity for them, and is the type of move I expect from such a smart FO.
Kyle Tucker is not in play. Derek Fisher (who may be better than I give him credit for)? One of their non-Martes RHPs?
Yuck. Any deal centered around that for Teheran would be infuriating.