After being target of fan frustration, Pirates 1B Rowdy Tellez starting to turn it around at plate

Rowdy Tellez understood the optics of getting caught admiring his work when his 100.6-mph line drive to right field ricocheted off the top of the Clemente Wall and bounced back into the outfield.

In an instant, Tellez went from watching what he thought was a home run to sprinting and sliding safe into second base for a double. Tellez wasn’t proud of the play, even if it drew cheers from a PNC Park crowd that had been booing the Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman.

“That was probably one of my lower moments, not being a professional,” Tellez said, shaking his head. “I know better than that. That’s something I shouldn’t do, especially with the way I’ve been playing. … That’s my fault. When I hit ’em, I know I hit ’em. I was confident in that one. It didn’t look good.”

Rowdy Tellez with a nearly-a-home-run double of his own off of the Clemente Wall

100.6 MPH exit velocity, 336 feet, HR in 6/30 ballparks pic.twitter.com/2psXlmcD5P

— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) May 5, 2024

The 6-foot-4, 270-pounder drew more cheers after scoring from second on Jack Suwinski’s single to left field to give the Pirates an insurance run in the sixth inning of Sunday’s 5-3 win over the Colorado Rockies.

“I had to turn on the jets a little bit and get some oxygen when I got in the dugout,” Tellez said with a laugh. “It was a big play.”

Tellez had turned into an easy target for fan frustrations, especially after he chastised those who booed as two-time All-Star closer David Bednar walked off the field after a blown save in which he allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers on April 9.

Where Bednar soon bounced back, Tellez started to scuffle. He hit .105 (4 for 38) over the next 14 games, going hitless in 11 of those games and failing to record an extra-base hit in all of them. After the Pirates signed Tellez to a one-year, $3.2 million contract this offseason in hopes of adding a slugger to the middle of their lineup, Tellez is batting .211 with three doubles, one home run and eight RBIs through 33 games.

It’s not the first — or worst — slow start of his seven-year major league career. In 2021, he went 0 for 21 in his first seven games with the Toronto Blue Jays and batted .209 through 50 games before being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. The change of scenery helped, as Tellez batted .272 with an .814 OPS, 18 extra-base hits and 28 RBIs to help the Brewers win the NL Central Division title. Tellez followed that by hitting career bests of 23 doubles, 35 home runs and 89 RBIs in 153 games in 2022 before slipping to .219 with nine doubles, 13 homers and 47 RBIs in 105 games last season.

Although Tellez doesn’t have social media accounts — “I couldn’t tell you what people said” — he heard the invective directed at him at home, especially after a strikeout or an error in the field. But he has no regrets about standing up for Bednar, a Mars alum who tied for the National League lead with 39 saves last season and was the Pirates’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award for his community service.

“I felt like that was the right time to stick up for my teammate, somebody who means a lot to this city and was struggling,” Tellez said. “I’ve been booed here at home, and rightfully so. It happens. I’m not playing good ball. I just felt like in that time, what he meant to this city and who he is as a player, that’s an All-Star. That’s one of the best closers in the game. Everybody struggles. If you find guys that don’t struggle, most of those guys end up in Cooperstown. You want guys to know that somebody in this clubhouse has your back, right, wrong or indifferent.”

His hitting funk sent Tellez to the video room, where he studied his success at the plate to search for differences. Tellez noticed the positioning of his hands was about six inches lower, and was convinced that the pressure he was putting on himself caused tension in his stance. It reminded him of a mantra: When you aim small, you miss small.

“I’m not trying to be wound up too tight, trying to hit the ball 7,000 feet,” Tellez said. “I’m just trying to make hard contact over and over again.”

After an adjustment, Tellez started doing just that. A pair of flyouts against Milwaukee on April 24 — including one to the warning track in center at a 103.9-mph exit velocity — proved to be a turning point for Tellez, even if he didn’t get the desired results.

He appeared to find his groove on the Pirates’ West Coast road trip, starting with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning and a single to right in the ninth of a 4-3 win at the San Francisco Giants on April 27, followed by a pair of doubles sandwiched around a walk the next night. Over the past seven games, Tellez has a .316/.333/.474 slash line.

“He’s going to get going,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “This guy’s hit. It’s just he’s been scuffling a little bit lately. He’s looking for the keys to what’s going to make him make better impact. Even the ball he hit backside that (Rockies third baseman Ryan) McMahon made the good play on (in the ninth inning), I thought was a good swing. So there’s signs that it’s definitely coming.”

Tellez thought his time had come on his sixth-inning shot off the top of the 21-foot wall, settling instead for a save-face double. But Tellez believes that he’s “starting to get better,” as evidenced by a 46.9% hard-hit rate and an average exit velocity of 90.2 mph.

“That’s just the way baseball goes: You’re going to have your ups and your downs,” Tellez said. “I’m trying my hardest to do everything I can. It doesn’t look good on paper, but I’m feeling good and everything I’m doing is trending in the right direction. I’m just trying to put together good at-bats. It’s a long season. I was scuffling a little bit, but we’ll be better.”