{"id":89380,"date":"2025-02-21T01:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T06:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=89380"},"modified":"2025-02-21T01:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T06:22:27","slug":"rowdy-tellez-free-agent-signs-mariners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/21\/rowdy-tellez-free-agent-signs-mariners\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Rowdy Tellez Signs Minors Deal with Mariners, Looking to Prove 2022 Wasn\u2019t a Fluke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Mariners will sign <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/10\/pirates-rowdy-tellez-job-search\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">free agent<\/a> first baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tellero01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rowdy Tellez<\/a> to a minor league deal, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Thursday evening. Previously, Tellez played for the Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, and most recently, the Pittsburgh Pirates. For his seven-year career, the left-handed batter has hit .234\/.303\/.436, 105 HR, and 319 RBI. This includes a 2022 season when he hit .219\/.306\/.461, 35 HR, and 89 RBI as a Brewer. The deal includes an invite to spring training, per Heyman.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Rowdy Tellez to the Mariners. Minors deal. MLB camp invite.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1892797058597232873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Report: Free Agent Rowdy Tellez to Sign with Mariners, Looking to Prove 2022 Wasn\u2019t a Fluke<\/h2>\n<p>Tellez looks more like a guy from your neighborhood bar\u2019s bowling team than your favorite team\u2019s first baseman. That type of Everyman appeal is perhaps why he\u2019s popular among a certain segment of the fan base, even during the occasional slump. In 2024, however, the slumps were more than occasional. He did well to bounce back after hitting a woeful .177\/.239\/.223 as of the end of May.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, as the latest to enter and exit through the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/24\/pirates-2025-first-base\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">revolving door<\/a> of recent Pirates first basemen, Tellez hit .243\/.299\/.392, 13 HR, and 56 RBI. The Pirates signing him was a reasonable gamble, given that he was just one year removed from his best season. However, having completed two consecutive years with just 13 home runs to go along with the usual subpar batting average, his 2022 season looks more and more like an aberration. Tellez will try to use this latest opportunity to prove otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Tellez rediscovering his power stroke would justify the Mariners signing this free agent. Of the so-called five tools, hitting for power is the sharpest in his toolbox. He\u2019ll probably never hit for a high average. He\u2019s a slow runner and isn\u2019t considered a good fielder. For 2024, he was charged with just two errors but was worth just one Fielding Run Above Average and registered -3 Defensive Runs Saved.<\/p>\n<p>The Pirates used Tellez as part of a first base platoon, which appears to be what best suits him. Last year, in 46 plate appearances against left-handed pitching, he was 8-for-40, albeit with two home runs. He\u2019s undoubtedly ticketed for a similar role this season. His playing time will be determined by how consistently he hits home runs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Mariners will sign free agent first baseman Rowdy Tellez to a minor league deal, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Thursday evening. Previously, Tellez played for the Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, and most recently, the Pittsburgh Pirates. For his seven-year career, the left-handed batter has hit .234\/.303\/.436, 105 HR, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":91099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071,35],"tags":[203],"class_list":["post-89380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","category-news","tag-rowdy-tellez"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96073,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89380\/revisions\/96073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}