The Rangers will select the contract of first baseman/designated hitter Rowdy Tellez to the major league roster to start the second half, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll step into the active roster spot of first baseman Jake Burger, who hit the injured list yesterday due to a strained left quadriceps. Texas has an open spot on the 40-man roster to facilitate that move.
Tellez, 30, opened the season with the division-rival Mariners but was designated for assignment and released earlier in the summer. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers on July 5 and has gone 5-for-15 with a pair of long balls in his brief time with their Triple-A Round Rock affiliate.
Tellez hit for power with the Mariners but struggled to get on base and turned in poor defensive marks at first base. He hit .208/.249/.434 and popped 11 round-trippers in 185 plate appearances. All but 14 of those turns at the plate for Tellez, who has pronounced career platoon splits, came against right-handed pitching. He’ll likely require a right-handed-hitting complement of some sort. Utilityman Ezequiel Duran presents an option in that regard, though he’s been more productive against fellow righties than in traditional platoon matchups in his career. Down in Triple-A, Blaine Crim and Justin Foscue offer righty bats with experience at first base.
Tellez has appeared in parts of eight MLB seasons and has more than six years of major league service. He’s a career .232/.299/.436 hitter in 2490 plate appearances. Tellez’s best season came with the 2022 Brewers, when he slugged 35 home runs in 599 plate appearances. He’s slashed just .226/.286/.394 (86 wRC+) with 37 home runs in 957 trips to the plate since that time.
Still stinks
Nathaniel Lowe can be had for a platter of bbq brisket
Not if Rowdy gets to the brisket first
Burger has dibs on the brisket.
Looks like he’s stolen jake’s burgers
selecting Tellez sounds like an act of desperation
The sound you hear is Texas hitting bottom
Round Rock Bottom, if you will.
Sir Mix a Lot Bottom
Rowdy was tearing up Triple A at a .333 clip (5 for 15) how could they let that go to waste? Plus watching him in Seattle, he can actually bend down and field his position enough to pass the eye test anyway. Go Rowdy!!!!!
You got to root for the guy. He loves the game, wants to play and seems like a good guy.
Career WAR of 0
I just don’t get how he continues to find jobs
Director of Catering Operations is his future.
WAR=Wins Above Rowdy.
He’s a replacement level player. He’s there because they need a temporary replacement.
How could you career war 0? Is that possible?
WAR = above
and you can go below, performance wise
equals 0
He’s just a dude to fill in a hole when there’s an injury or if your team is absolute trash.
This guy over Blaine Crim? Christ
Could of had Adam Vaughan for a Civale-like arm…
Could have. The questions are though, who is Adam Vaughan and what team does he play for?
Perhaps he’s related to MVP winner Mo Vaughn!
Maybe Adam is one of the many illegitimate spawn of 60s TV Batman
Low risk-high reward. If he produces, great. If he doesn’t. Easy DFA option when Burger returns or Jung is right.
I don’t see the “high reward” part based off the negative value he’s provided this season and his track record up to this point in his career
He’ll probably hit a couple bombs early on and get people excited about the elusive “high reward” before tapering off and throwing up a lot of 0-fers and getting DFA’d. That’s the Rowdy playbook.
Low risk high reward?? If he doesn’t produce easy DFA?
There is a very high risk in playing him – the Rangers could lose one or more games they might have won had they played a different 1B (Crim or Foscue or Freeman)and not signed Rowdy at all. They’re only a couple games out of the wild card so any loss that should have been a win potentially costs them the postseason. Thus there is huge risk in this move flopping.
It also doesn’t help, and only makes worse, the Rangers’ huge deficiencies against LHP. Helman and Duran and Osuna really all 3 could stand to be replaced.by Freeman and Foscue and Crim or Hauver maybe?
hey, the guy has a 0.00 ERA. All for the low-low price of a specially-reinforced toilet in the clubhouse.
Somewhere, a fat beer league softball first baseman breathes a sigh of relief. Tellez was going to take his spot, but he gets to start this weekend against Reilly’s Pub.
When Manfred decides to break ties with a tug of war Rowdy can be the anchor.
Dan Vogelbach suddenly has hope.
This will be the most value he will be for the Ms. When we play the Rangers he will hit .200 and drive in 0 runs. Also the double plays he hits into will be low because of no baserunners but still have a couple. He will have an error or 2.
Sad to see all the insults and juvenile jokes by internet warriors about an individual who has achieved far more than they have. Tellez is not a superstar by any stretch of the imagination but in a highly competitive field he has managed to make it to the majors repeatedly and put together a career. No player who makes it to the majors “stinks”. They may fail but they have made it farther than the vast majority of those who tried.
As a Pirate fan, I was happy when they released him deservedly last year. As a baseball fan and a human, I am happy that he soldiered on and was earned another chance at the majors. His eleven home runs in 185 PAs is worthy of note. Heck, that is better than Bryan Reynolds’ ten in almost twice as many plate appearances.
I agree. In the end, the most unathletic MLB player is still dozens of times more athletic than the average person. The wost MLB player is still, in most cases, one of the top 800 baseball players in the world.
Comin against the ‘warriors’ now …. gloves are off !
Well said Skep!
Rowdy had some clutch bombs for the Mariners and even some web gems in crucial situations.
He’s made about $12+ million and that’s not counting Texas money. I’d say he’s snookered a few pitchers in his 8 seasons on and off.
Replaced a double quarter pounder with a triple whopper…
Agreed:
To all the folks roasting our new Texas Rangers DH for being a “big boy”, relax. I grew up fat too, and watching him crush baseballs gives hope to every chubby kid who was picked last but hit moonshots in gym class.
This man has already hit more home runs in the Major Leagues than I did in thirty years of beer league softball, and I batted cleanup for both co-ed and men’s leagues.
He is living proof that talent, grit, and a beautiful swing matter more than a six-pack (unless it is in the cooler after the game with some vodka). So instead of body-shaming him from the couch, maybe just appreciate that baseball has always had room for all shapes, especially the ones who can hit 450-foot bombs.
Big guys win too. And sometimes, we win with extra bases.
So to you skinny guys poking fun of our new Texas Rangers, you’re sitting at home, he’s playing MLB!!!!! Who’s the loser now??????
#BigBoyBombs #DHWithDingers #RespectTheHustle
So glad you shared the batting cleanup in 2 beer softball leagues for context
YVW
Sanity.
Silicon valley internet “lords” driving us apart.
Let’s have a bit of kumbayah instead.
“Rowdy has a pair of long balls” – Steve Adams. Very AC/DC
What happened to Abimelec Ortiz?
Google knows.
He is playing for Frisco..minor leagues.
Geez not much love for Rowdy! He isn’t all that bad and is a lot more exciting to watch hitting compared to many others.
And Seattle is no hitters park. IMO he will probably have a decent go of it hitting in the Rangers lineup