The Mariners have designated first baseman Rowdy Tellez for project, per a crew announcement. His spot on the roster will go to outfielder/first baseman Luke Raley, who’s been activated from the injured record after lacking seven weeks with an indirect pressure.
Tellez, 30, is in his eighth massive league season and has popped 11 house runs whereas serving as Seattle’s major first baseman. Early within the 12 months, he was anticipated to see extra time at designated hitter for skipper Dan Wilson, however the harm to Raley and ongoing harm points for infielder Jorge Polanco (who was accordingly relegated to DH work) pushed Tellez into the sphere frequently.
After a disastrous begin to his season, Tellez righted the ship in mid-April and has been a serviceable however flawed supply of energy within the coronary heart of the Mariners’ order. He reached base simply as soon as in his first 23 plate appearances however has since swatted 11 homers and slugged .484. That energy comes with a low common and bottom-of-the-barrel OBP, nevertheless. Tellez not often walks, is straightforward to place in opposition to defensively as a consequence of his extreme-pull strategy, and is measured by Statcast because the slowest participant in baseball (eliminating just about any probability of him reaching by way of infield hit).
Relationship again to April 11, Tellez has taken 162 turns on the plate and is hitting .229/.265/.484. He’s been shielded virtually totally from left-handed pitching, receiving simply 14 plate appearances and reaching base solely twice (one single, one hit-by-pitch). He’s hitting .219/.257/.463 in opposition to right-handed pitching this 12 months.
With Raley nearing a return, it appeared seemingly that both Tellez or fellow veteran first base possibility Donovan Solano may very well be pushed off the roster. Since each Tellez and Raley hit left-handed, the Mariners opted to maneuver on from the veteran who can preserve a platoon intact. Solano has helped his trigger by hitting higher over the previous month, albeit in an excessively restricted position. He’s batted .333/.394/.467 since Could 20 however accomplished so in solely 33 plate appearances (26 of them in opposition to lefties).
In the meanwhile, Solano and Raley will presumably platoon at first base. That’s not an excellent setup, as Raley is extra snug within the outfield than at first and Solano has struggled this season total. The Mariners will, on the very least, seemingly discover the commerce marketplace for righty-swinging choices at first base within the weeks forward. Dominic Canzone has offered barely better-than-average offense in proper area since being known as up earlier this month (.233/.303/.400 in 33 plate appearances), but when he struggles like he has in two prior MLB seasons, the Mariners may transfer Raley to proper area. That might set them as much as both give prospect Tyler Locklear a run at first base or discover the commerce marketplace for a full-time improve both at first base or in proper area.
The Mariners can have 5 days to commerce Tellez or place him on waivers. He initially signed a minor league contract with Seattle however locked in a $1.5MM wage when he made the roster after an enormous spring efficiency. He’s nonetheless owed about $806K of that sum, as of this writing.
Any crew that claims Tellez off waivers would assume everything of that remaining wage. If the M’s discover an commerce accomplice, they might embrace some money to offset the wage in alternate for what would nonetheless seemingly be a nominal prospect return. Since waivers are a 48-hour course of, we’ll know the end result of Tellez’s DFA inside a most of 1 week’s time. Within the occasion that he clears waivers, Tellez has sufficient service time to elect free company and retain the remaining cash on this 12 months’s wage.
