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Just four plate appearances shy of earning a $200,000 bonus for a contract incentive, the Pittsburgh Pirates instead opted to designate for assignment first baseman Rowdy Tellez. In addition, Pittsburgh recalled INF Liover Peguero and OF Joshua Palacios from Triple-A Indianapolis. OF Michael A. Taylor was also DFA'd.
Many Pirates fans took to social media to vent their frustrations.
Rowdy Tellez was due a 200k bonus at 425 plate appearances this year.
The Pirates just DFA’d him. He was at 421 plate appearances.
Did him dirty. pic.twitter.com/LqL53KBYOw
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) September 24, 2024
Another fan believes team behavior will only keep free agents from signing with the Pirates.
That’s the kind of treatment that keeps players away from Pittsburgh.
— Walt Penberthy (@TErnestos) September 24, 2024
Pirates GM Ben Cherington said the bonus was not a factor in the decision to move on from Tellez, per ESPN News Services
“We feel like we gave Rowdy lots of opportunity here this year,” Cherington told reporters before Pittsburgh hosted Milwaukee on Tuesday night. “To his credit, he fought through some difficult times earlier in the year and fought his way out of it. Had periods of success and periods of frustration. This is just where we got to in the season.”
Tellez was set to earn the performance bonus if he reached 425 plate appearances. He finishes the year with 421.
Recapping Josh Skenes, Pirates' 2024 season
The year was far from a total loss, and there were times in the summer when it looked as though the Pirates might shake up the National League Central. The future certainly looks bright for potential 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes. The praise he's received has been well-deserved and consistent from all sources.
Catcher and teammate Joey Bart spoke how Skenes reminded him of veteran RHP Kevin Gausman and his ability to work between his change-up and “splinker” pitch.
“It kind of reminds me of, when I was young, catching Kevin Gausman,” said Joey Bart. “He would kind of tunnel that splitter to the changeup, and it's pretty devastating. So, he's got 100 mph and he's got plenty of offerings to get him in the zone and put guys away.”
Skenes recently detailed how he developed his splinker while on the MLB Network.
“Yeah, so started throwing it when I got to LSU out of the transfer portal it was one of the projects was to throw a sinker,” Paul Skenes said on MLB Network. “And I found a grip, kind of a split-finger, you know pseudo-split-finger grip from one of my friends and I was trying to throw it off my middle finger at the time, and it was fine, didn't throw it a whole lot in game. It was fine in college, like whatever.
“The draft came, and got shut down basically after the College World Series and started throwing again, ramping up to throwing games after the draft and I was playing catch one day, and it basically accidentally came off my index finger and moved how it moves now, and I was basically like, ‘well that was good,' so I'm gonna keep trying to do that and it stuck.”
The Pirates have five games left to their 2024 season and close out with a series against the Brewers and then travel to New York for three games against the Yankees.
