PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – You don’t release or designate a player for assignment just because he is getting booed, but what is it the Pirates see in Rowdy Tellez to keep him on the roster?
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington asked that question Friday before his 23-28 team opened a series against the Braves on Friday.
"Just the underlying physical traits are still there,” Cherington explained. “The bat speed, the ability to hit the ball really hard. He's healthy, he's working hard.”
All of that may be true, some of it debatable. In the month of May, the player you added to anchor first base, has one RBI and has accumulated four hits.
“He's scuffling,” Cherington said. “He knows that, we all know that. I know he feels the burden of that and he's accountable for it. We're all accountable for our performance ultimately. The same reasons that we pursued him, those same reasons are there. He wants to be doing better than he is. Nobody wants to be doing better than he does."
Tellez told several reporters similar things in taking accountability and admitting he needs to improve after the game on Thursday. That is noble to admit when you need to pick it up, but at what point can you keep these numbers as part of a solution? On the season, 45 games, .175 average/.242 on-base/.225 slugging/.467 OPS, 3 doubles, 1 home run, 8 RBI.
"We're not seeing the outcomes that we've seen in the past,” Cherington said. “We're not seeing the outcomes that we hoped to see. The physical things that would and hopefully still can lead to those outcomes are still there. That's what I was referencing. The outcomes and the at-bats have obviously not been there."
Cherington said they are focused on winning right now, not for the future. They believe the one-year, $3.2 million free agent Tellez is a part of better days ahead.
"We're very focused on 2024,” Cherington said. “We're very focused on today. We want to be good today. We want to win tonight. We want to get up and find a way to get better tomorrow and win again. We're really not looking past [this year].”
“We feel good that we have players that have a chance to be here awhile, but our focus is on 2024, and that's certainly where my focus is. We want to find a way to keep getting better this year."
As of May 24, that focus, and improvement, includes Tellez on the active roster