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The Pittsburgh Pirates have released Rowdy Tellez as he was on the verge of receiving a $200,000 bonus for reaching 425 plate appearances this season.
The team announced prior to Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers that Tellez had been designated for assignment.
Pittsburgh’s decision came with six games remaining in the regular season. Tellez had 421 plate appearances, four shy of triggering the $200,000 bonus in his contract.
In the same move, Michael A. Taylor was designated for assignment. The team called up Liover Peguero and Joshua Palacios from Triple-A to fill out their roster.
The decision to part ways with Tellez raised some eyebrows, but general manager Ben Cherington told reporters it was not a financially-motivated move:
“No factor at all, zero. And, no, I’m not concerned. Contracts are negotiated in good faith. Then they live out. We feel like we gave Rowdy lots of opportunity here this year. To his credit, he fought through some difficult times earlier in the year. Had periods of success and frustration. This is just where we got to in the season. Had nothing to do with where the plate appearances were lining up.”
Tellez signed a one-year, $3.2 million contract with the Pirates as a free agent in December 2023. He has been in the lineup for most of the season as the starting first baseman or designated hitter.
There was a performance-based justification for the Pirates to release Tellez. He hit .243/.299/.392 with 13 homers and 56 RBI in 131 games.
Among 19 first baseman with at least 400 plate appearances this season, Tellez’s minus-0.6 FanGraphs’ wins above replacement is tied for last with Ty France.
But the decision to wait until the final week of the regular season to make this move is questionable, especially since Pirates owner Bob Nutting has been scrutinized for his lack of investment in the MLB roster over the years.
In a February report from The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt and Ken Rosenthal about the state of the franchise under Nutting’s ownership, one former instructor for the team said they had to wait a day to execute a trade to save $30,000.
The Pirates haven’t run a payroll of at least $90 million since 2017. They have missed the playoffs in nine consecutive seasons dating back to 2016, with just one winning season during that span (82-79 in 2018).
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