You can say that Rowdy Tellez already has a sense of familiarity with his new surroundings.
There are plenty of familiar faces on the coaching staff, to start. Derek Shelton was on the Blue Jays' coaching staff when he was a young player in 2017. Andy Haines was his hitting coach with the Brewers back in 2021. Infield coach Mendy Lopez coached him in the Dominican Republic. He played against assistant hitting coach Christian Marrero in the minors.
And after watching the Pirates the past three seasons as a member of the Brewers, he has a pretty good feel for the city and this team.
“It’s just a good situation all around, a good young core," Tellez said in an introductory Zoom call with local media. "A good group of guys, a good coaching staff that I’m used to. I’ve had a lot of those guys in the past in my career with other teams. Just a good place to play. Fun city. I think it’s the coolest stadium in baseball. I think there’s a couple draws for me outside of the coaching staff and a good group of guys.”
Tellez signed a one-year, $3.2 million deal with the Pirates last week, presumably to be the left-handed half of a first base platoon. After hitting 35 home runs in 2022, Tellez got off to a fast start with the Brewers last year before a forearm and finger injury sidelined him and then greatly impacted his production over the final months of the season, resulting in a .215/.291/.376 slash line with 13 home runs over 351 plate appearances. As a result, the Brewers opted not to keep him for his final year of arbitration.
Those injuries inspired him to try to lean down from his listed 270-pound frame, including doing Pilates. For two months last season, he was on an even better pace than his 35-homer 2022 season, logging 12 home runs and an .825 OPS through the month of May. His results took a nosedive once he started to try to play through his injuries, and instead of establishing himself as one of the biggest power threats in the National League Central, he found himself on the free agent market.
"It's a huge motivation because i felt like 2022 I had a really good year, kind of turned it around, showed what I could do," Tellez said. "[I] always believed in myself, and I think the first two months of the season in 2023 prior to dealing with injuries and that kind of stuff, I just had a really good start to the season and I think that once that happened. And then trying to deal with the injuries and not saying anything and just being that guy that goes out every day whether it's right or wrong, just kind of rolling through it really affected me.
"Once we got to the offseason, it was a huge focus on getting healthy. Making sure everything is right, getting cleared by the doctors and I feel great."
The Pirates certainly need a big power bat like his. While Jack Suwinski hit 26 home runs last season and Bryan Reynolds hit 24, Ke'Bryan Hayes was the only other player on the team to hit at least 15. As a team, the Pirates hit just 159 home runs in 2023, the third-fewest in baseball, and their .392 slugging percentage was the third-lowest in the National League.
If Tellez can regain his 2022 form, then his spray chart from that year looks pretty good over PNC Park's dimensions:
BASEBALL SAVANT
But the Pirates also need more than just a power hitter in this arrangement. They need another veteran in the clubhouse.
Tellez has played six years in the majors and acknowledges that makes him one of the more veteran players in the lineup. It's very possible that Andrew McCutchen -- once he signs -- ends up being the only position player with more service time than him once the regular season comes around, while the majority of the lineup could consist of players with less than two full years in the majors.
He knows what it's like to succeed and fail in this league, and he hopes he can teach the lessons he learned from those experiences.
"I’ve always been the kind of guy that smiles, has some fun, jokes around," Tellez said. "A lot of the young players try to fit in right away and it takes a toll on them. That’s exactly what I tried to do. I tried to do more than I needed to, tried to be someone I’m not and it took a toll. I ended up getting traded because I put too much pressure on myself. I was able to have better years.”
Being able to do that would certanily help a group that has higher aspirations for next season. While the Brewers wound up winning the Central comfortably, for the first couple months, the Pirates matched them win for win.
"You guys don’t understand how frustrating it was playing the Pirates in the beginning of the year last year where we felt like we were the better team but we could never close out the series and it was just a battle to the end," Tellez said. "I’m excited to be to be on the Pittsburgh end now, the team that battles and p----- people off.”
With Tellez in the mix of a maturing group, perhaps that Pirates' peskiness will last more than just a couple months.
"I just remember playing for Milwaukee, coming in and being like 'man, these guys [the Pirates] are good,' " Tellez said. "They're just 1-2 pieces away. One or two little things away from really kind of shutting the door and making themselves a contender in the Central. I'm hoping that i can be one of those pieces. I hope we add a couple more and we can really turn it around. They're a great team. We're really good. I'm excited to be a part of it."
