Former Brewers fan favorite done dirty with DFA by Pirates

Rowdy Tellez was an instant fan favorite in Milwaukee. After coming over in a trade with the Blue Jays, the 6'4", 270 pound first baseman slugged his way into Brewers fans hearts.

Tellez spent three seasons in a Milwaukee uniform, then was non-tendered last offseason by the Crew. He signed a one year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the 2024 season.

Tellez hasn't had the greatest year. His performance has declined markedly from his career-best season in 2022. He had some early season struggles, then went on a tear at the plate during the middle of the season. The Pirates could have DFAed Tellez earlier in the year when he was struggling, but they opted to stick with him.

As part of his contract for the year, Tellez was due bonuses for certain achievements he could reach throughout the year.

One of those bonuses was for $200,000 if he reached 425 plate appearances on the season. Tellez was sitting at 421 plate appearances with a week to go. One more game and he would've secured that bonus. However, before that game against the Brewers could be played, the Pirates decided to designate Tellez for assignment.

Former Brewer Rowdy Tellez done dirty by Pirates organization

Ethan Hullihen had the initial report that Tellez was just four plate appearances shy of reaching his incentive upon his DFA.

The Pirates claim that the contract incentive was not a factor at all in their decision, that they simply wanted to get some young players some playing time in the final week of the season. Of course that's what they'll say, though. The manager can't publicly say that the incentive played a factor in cutting him loose, that would open them up to a complaint from the player's union.

Ahead of an offseason where the Pirates are looking to further bolster their roster in an attempt to return to competing, this is a horrible look for them. They bought at the trade deadline this year, they have designs on competing for that 2025 NL Central crown. They'll need reinforcements to do it and they may have just hindered their own pursuits of those reinforcements because they just made clear to all free agents that if they have incentives in their contract, that the team isn't interested in letting them reach those incentives.

This is a tough scene for a former Brewers fan favorite who clearly was done dirty by an NL Central rival. If this whole situation does result in the Pirates missing out on potential free agents, that may be of benefit to the Brewers as that's one less team to worry about being able to track them down and prevent a three-peat of the NL Central next year. However, the Pirates weren't even of much concern to begin with.