Pirates Prove Nothing Has Changed with Classless Tellez Move

I don’t know what was the first Google search suggestion when you typed “row” before September 24th, but I doubt it was Rowdy Tellez. 

Rowdy Tellez, a first baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was DFA’d (designated for assignment), removing him immediately from the roster, just four plate appearances shy of a $200,000 bonus during the last week of the season.. 

The Pirates are notoriously cheap, so, yeah, that kind of tracks. 

But, for Pirates fans, this is a new low for the Nutting playbook. 

Pirates GM Ben Cherrington insists that the bonus had nothing to do with the decision. 

Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. 

First of all, the Pirates were mathematically eliminated from the postseason (for the 9th season in a row!) on September 16th. Second, there are like six games left in the season. Nothing significant is going to happen for the two players who were called up that would factor into next season. 

Pirates manager Derek Shelton (another topic for me altogether) claims that the decision to call up prospects Liover Peguero and outfielder Joshua Palacios was due to the minor league season ending and getting these guys experience. 

How many innings do we think they’ll play in this last week of the season?

What are the chances they are both on the Pittsburgh Pirates for Opening Day 2025? 

Start placing your bets, folks!

Cherrington said he isn’t worried about the optics. Is he blind? More likely, probably resigned to the absolute hell the Pirates front office must be. For me, $200,000 would change my life. Not so much for Rowdy who, according to Yahoo writer Jason Owens, would have earned approximately $12.5 million in his salary if he retired today. The money here isn’t the point at all. 

If you release Rowdy September 1st, it lasts through the evening news. If you release Rowdy September 30th, nobody bats an eye. No one.

You release him during the last week of the season when the guy is four at-bats away from a nice bonus and you’re already a league laughingstock due in part to your cheapness, you look petty as hell. 

Rowdy Tellez wasn’t a superstar, but the guy was improving throughout the season after a rough start. Also, he was a fan-favorite.

I think ESPN’s Jeff Passan said it best on The Pat McAfee Show:

"I think the important point here is not to focus on how the Pirates screwed Rowdy Tellez out of $200,000," Passan said, "it's to look at the Pirates and look at Bob Nutting and to ask, 'Why is Rowdy Tellez your first baseman in the first place? Why aren't you going out and getting better players? Why don't you sign Christian Walker or Pete Alonso, or someone this winter to go and be a part of the core of that lineup long-term? Why are you always playing for short term with little money? Why do you have an $86 million payroll to open the season when the rest of the sport, at the top, has $300-plus million? How do you continue to exist as a Major League Baseball owner, who theoretically wants to win a championship, and do so pinching pennies?"

“This is what happens. This, Pat, is the consequence of ownership that does not treat things seriously."

You can watch it here.

Mark Madden also put in terms I agree with, and he doesn’t mince words.

As Pirates fans are left with familiar feelings of frustration, I do have a question.

Bob Nutting, why do you own a baseball team?

It’s not to win games.

Dan Kingerski is calling upon the MLB to “end Bob Nutting’s destruction.” I don’t know how the MLB could do such a thing, but he’s right - Bob Nutting isn’t a bad businessman. He owns a ski resort. A newspaper. God knows what else.  That’s not why the Pirates had 20 consecutive losing seasons (not all under Nutting, to be fair). 

He’s making decisions for his profit, nothing more. He knows that the Pirates aren’t competing with an $86 million team payroll when you have $300 million payrolls out there. 

And it is mind-boggling to think about how much he could be making if he invested in this team. 

When you play Pittsburgh, you play the whole city. 

If the Pirates were competitive, every game could be a Yinzerfest. And I’m guilty of it - I’ve gone to games for the giveaways or fireworks or whatever. But it is just so frustrating knowing what the team and fan base could be like. 

And it’s not even just about winning - it is the utter apathy towards investing and building a team. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to play for the Pirates. Those guys want to win. We’ve been rebuilding and getting prospects for well over a decade now. Nutting just does not care about the Pirates winning. 

Really feel bad for anyone in the Pirates front office or PR. PR has to be a nightmare right now.

It’s worse than Rachel Phelps of the classic movie Major League putting together a horrible team so attendance drops so low that she can move the team to Miami. Or Wild Bill from Eddie using every gimmick - including hiring the NBA’s first female head coach - to drum up stories and add entertainment to move the Knicks. 

And, they both failed. Rachel failed twice. 

This is Pittsburgh. 

How do you just deal with being the laughingstock of the MLB and the disdain the city has towards you? 

Nutting has proven, yet again, his disdain for Pittsburgh and the game of baseball.