Teng, 27, is a native of Taiwan. He originally signed with the Twins in 2017 and was traded to the Giants in a package for Sam Dyson at the 2019 trade deadline. Teng made his MLB debut with the Giants in 2024 with four appearances. Last year, he went 2-4 with a 6.37 ERA in 8 appearances (7 starts, 29.2 IP total) for San Francisco. Jancel Villarroel played at both Class A levels last year and slashed .259/.351/.388 with 8 home runs and 54 RBI between Fayetteville and Asheville. He probably would've started at Asheville this year. Villarroel is a bat-first catcher whose offense is still probably ahead of his defense at this point. J.P. France DFA'd to make room for Teng on the 40-man.
Meh. I mean, he has tools to work with, but I'm not expecting a lot. He has some upside and can probably give you more than you were going to get from France at least. I'd still like to keep France...
They traded a decent prospect for an optionable righty swingman so they could DFA…an optionable righty swingman. Said it in the other thread, but with the caveat that the Astros deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to acquiring pitchers, I really don’t like this trade.
Maybe the Astros think they can work a trade of France in the next few days to acquire a lottery ticket prospect. We've seen it before after a player is DFA'd.
We will see. It is unlikely to be a trade of much consequence. Villarroel is probably on the Enmanuel Valdez path to obscurity and Teng is probably destined for the Kaleb Ort DFA bouncearound career path. But I think this has enough chance to be another “Teoscar Hernandez for Francisco Liriano” that it’s not worth making.
This is a repeat of the Dylan Coleman trade with Kansas City. Take on a pitcher that throws hard but doesn't do anything else worth a damn. At least Teng isn't injured (I think Coleman was coming back from an injury or got injured early in the season). Considering we gave up a "top 15" prospect, slot money, and a pitcher that had some (pre-injury) success, I think SF won this one. Teng has a steep hill to climb on his now 3rd MLB team.
Oh wow… I don’t know much about Villarreal, then again with the Astros prospects on thinner of late, I’ve focused mostly on the MLB club. I know you know your minor league prospects, so I respect your analysis. But that’s concerning. In regards to Teoscar, I had such high expectations for him when he was with the Astros, I was so disappointed when they traded him away. He was supposed to be this amazing player, which he did prove to be, given the chance. Based in the past success the Astros have had identifying average pitchers and tweaking them into formidable players; the Astros do deserve the benefit of the doubt. But if it turns out out to be another Teoscar caliber player they traded away, that would be a hard pill to swallow.
We will have to wait and see. I didn't like the Sandoval or Hernandez trades the organization made at the time. However - If I am Dana Brown, and Miller and his staff walk into my office and tell me that they want a Taiwanese pitcher that has struggled but has some upward stuff ..... I am going to pick up the phone and try to get Miller the pitchers he wants. As for Coleman - the physical stuff was there, he just lost his control and command after his injury and never got it back.
I just hope he pitches for the big club at some point and his fan group in the stands calls themselves the Wei Teng Clan. I don't think that's asking for too much.
He showed a noticeable improvement at missing bats in AAA last season once he was moved to reliever work. Judging by his small MLB sample, there was a significant change in pitch mix going from primarily sinker to heavy sweeper/4 seamer usage. 14.1 K/9 in AAA with a decrease in walks and a .197 BA is nothing to sneeze at. On the surface his MLB numbers look terrible, but his xBA, K rate and hard hit% were all elite. His xERA was also a much more respectable 4.02, granted a very small sample. So while I'm not prepping the Cy Young campaign. It's certainly easy for me to see why the Astros think there could be meaningful impact upside for him. If the Astros say JP France just isn't good enough, I trust them even if I was a fan of his.
