Pirates first baseman Rowdy Tellez quickly came to the defense of closure David Bednar earlier this month after he blew a save against the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park earlier this month.
"This is the pride of Pittsburgh,” Tellez said after the 5-3 loss on April 9. “To everybody: We don't do that out here. We're a good team. We're winning for a reason. We're gonna get our man back on track, but what happened today is, I think, unacceptable.”
“We as a group in Pittsburgh gotta be better. He's an All-Star for a reason and we just have to be better.”
The Pirates were still 9-3 at that time and riding a 5-0 start to the season.
Now the Pirates are sitting at 13-13 ahead of a weekend series against the Giants in San Francisco and Tellez is the one being booed.
Having a Pirates player, who was brand new to the team, lecturing fans on how to act, rubbed some the wrong way.
Bednar may have turned it around, pitching better lately but Tellez has gone from bad to worse as the month has gone on.
The 29-year-old is currently batting .183, well below the Mendoza line and has an OPS of .500.
He only has one home run. That came back on March 31.
Tellez has a decent year in 2022 with 35 home runs, but struggled last year and this year…is not good.
Tellez may go from criticizing who Pirates fans can boo to being designated for assignment if he doesn’t start hitting.
The Pirates were hoping for a bounce-back year from Tellez, hoping to see more of his 2022 form. A month into the season, it's not working out.