I lied a few days ago when I tweeted that I was done writing about Rowdy Tellez for a little.
But he continues to be the biggest talking point amongst the Pirates, and while his counterpart at first base continues to outperform him, the struggles of Tellez continue to hang like an ominous cloud over this team.
Since I wrote that enough was enough and that Connor Joe needed to be the everyday first baseman, Joe has home runs in three straight games and 6 RBI. This was the latest dinger in the Connor Joe Home Run Tour:
But despite the surging success of Joe and the drag that Tellez is right now, manager Derek Shelton says they still need to get Tellez regular at bats and reps.
But instead of writing another thing about the struggles of Tellez that will get lost in the piles of words about it (and trust me, my work gets buried enough on its own), I want to frame this one differently.
We’ve seen the Pirates make some moves in recent days that we did not see coming.
Most recently, leftie Josh Fleming was the unsuspecting reliever to be designated for assignment, being replaced with Ryder Ryan as the Pirates try to change up their ailing bullpen.
The announcement of Fleming’s DFA is controversial. How much of his recent woes were actually his fault as opposed to poor management and potential overuse? That’s a question I attempted to tackle as well, located here if you’d be so kind to support me and find out.
However, Fleming’s departure also marked a trend for the Pirates in recent days. The team also DFA’d a fellow struggling reliever last week.
Paul Skenes was always expected to come up to the big leagues in the early part of the season, but the question was always about whose spot he was going to take.
That answer happened to be reliever Roansy Contreras, who was out of options and instead had to be designated for assignment, meaning he is either about to be traded or placed outright on waivers, where any team could have him.
I think it’s fair to say that not a lot of people expected the man to be let go was Roansy. That’s not to say it wasn’t the correct decision, but the Pirates have desperately been trying to make Contreras work as a Pirate ever since he arrived here as part of the Jameson Taillon trade.
To their credit, Contreras was a reliable starter in 2022. He went 5-5 with a 3.79 ERA on a terrible Pirates team through 21 games (18 starts). He looked like a legitimate option for Pittsburgh’s rotation moving forward.
Since then, however, Contreras has been nothing short of a train wreck.
Last season, the Pirates started him as a member of the rotation, but to say he lost a step might have been the understatement of the year.
In 11 games as a starter, Contreras racked up a 6.13 ERA, a 1.58 WHIP and a low 1.68 K/BB ratio. Opponents were batting .289 against him and recorded an .821 OPS with him out there.
The team tried moving him to the bullpen to salvage his season. Those some of those stats marginally improved (he had a better K/BB ratio and lower opposing batting averages and OPS numbers) he had a much higher 8.36 ERA.
Finally having enough during mid-summer last year, the team initially optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. He bounced around between there, Low-A Bradenton even the rookie Florida Complex League before getting back to Indy.
He recorded a 4.96 ERA in 32.2 innings pitched in Triple-A last year (6 starts, 8 games).
Although the Pirates couldn’t justify having him around anymore in 2023, that didn’t stop them in 2024. Despite a shaky spring training, Contreras was named to the big league team to start the year.
Even after his downfall, the Pirates showed faith in Roansy enough to keep on the major league roster as a converted reliever. We can debate whether that was the right decision, but the Pirates put their head down and stuck with him.
It didn’t work, and after posting a 4.41 ERA in 16.1 innings this year, Pittsburgh made the choice to replace his roster spot with Skenes.
You’ll notice that I spent a lot more time talking about Roansy here than I did Fleming, and while yes I admit that’s in part because I want you to click the Fleming article, but also because there is a comparison between Contreras and Tellez that I am going to attempt to make.
Stick with me here.
It frustrated a lot of Pirates fans to see Contreras still on the tea and be given so many major league opportunities despite having such little to show for it.
The same thing is now happening with Rowdy Tellez.
Both players had received significant investments from the team, Contreras with a trade and time and Tellez with money. Even if the Pirates still have a glowing idea of Tellez, they at one point had a way higher ceiling projection with Contreras than they would have with Tellez this season.
And if the Pirates were willing to finally call it on the Roansy experiment, maybe that means they aren’t stubborn enough to end the Rowdy experiment as well.
I know it’s a hard comparison to draw, but after how much the organization propped Contreras up and kept him in the lineup despite there being better options, no one really expected to see him actually be given up on by the Pirates.
People wanted it, but no one expected it.
The same thing is now happening with Tellez. They have propped him up and continued to play him despite there being other (and better) options.
No one actually thinks it will happen, so maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly why it could happen.
In many ways, the decision to DFA Contreras was the much harder one. It was an indictment of the Pirates’ pitcher development system to see a former top 100 prospect in baseball be almost assuredly out of the organization at just 24 years old.
He would likely get claimed by another team off waivers unless the Pirates could secure some sore of trade before that. Either way, he likely isn’t continuing his baseball journey with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Tellez? He is an indictment of the Pirates front office, yes, but at 29 and with no more developing left to do, there is so much less risk that he gets claimed by anyone. And even if he does, so be it.
Food for thought, as my senior year English teacher would say.
(Featured photo of Roansy Contreras by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
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