The Pittsburgh Pirates are making a move that can’t have been coincidence.
Pittsburgh announced on Tuesday that they have designated first baseman Rowdy Tellez for assignment. Infielder Liover Peguero is getting called up in a corresponding move.
Baseball personality Ben Verlander noted that the move to DFA Tellez might have been very intentional. The 29-year-old Tellez would have been owed a $200,000 bonus if he had reached 425 plate appearances for Pittsburgh this season. With the Pirates DFA’ing him before Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Tellez ends at 421 PAs (one game’s worth shy of cashing on his bonus).
Rowdy Tellez was due a 200k bonus at 425 plate appearances this year.
The Pirates just DFA’d him. He was at 421 plate appearances.
Did him dirty. pic.twitter.com/LqL53KBYOw
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) September 24, 2024
Pittsburgh has long been eliminated from playoff contention at 73-83, and at the same time, the final six games of the season are not really enough for them to get Peguero any meaningful development. As such, it is hard to find another explanation for the Tellez DFA other than it being a way to get out of paying his bonus.
The Pirates have the second-lowest payroll in MLB this season at a meager $85.4 million, so there were not even any luxury-tax considerations in play here. As for Tellez, who had a 35-homer season in 2022 with Milwaukee, he had actually been performing nicely enough for Pittsburgh this year. He was at 13 homers and 56 RBIs in 131 games for the Pirates. But now he has been DFA’d just short of collecting on his season-long bonus in what is the latest unpopular move by an organization that has become known for them.
