Soldering threaded fittings

I am pretty good with solder, but I am concerned about sweating a short section (6 inches) of copper between a shower value and diverter where there are threaded fittings on both. (I soldered the valve side fitting before turning it down to avoid cooking the valve.) How do I protect the teflon tape on the diverter end? Will small strips of wet rags do it? Should I try sweating a couple in the middle? Is a Sharkbite connector in the middle an option? It is the last piece of a very large puzzle. Help! Thanks.

Sweating that close will heat the pipe up enough to melt the teflon tape. Putting wet rags that close will probably not help at all and will just keep the pipes cold enough to make the heating process take long enough to burn off the flux.

Thanks, Basement Lurker. This is what I thought as well. Any suggestions? I am not a fan of the Sharkbite solution. What a couple in the middle?

If you use pipe dope instead of Teflon tape, you will be better off.

Normally I solder my MA on first, slap some pipe dope on it, and then thread it up.
I don't like using a sharkbite near a valve, they tend to spin.