Pirates dump player who was just shy of earning lucrative bonus

The Pittsburgh Pirates have already secured their sixth consecutive losing season and 28th in the past 34 years dating back to the start of the 1990 season. There are a lot of issues with the organization that have produced that run of futility. 

Bad player development. Bad player evaluation. Bad managing. Bad general managers. Just a lot of bad stuff. 

All of those areas fall under the same umbrella that is the true issue with the franchise — bad, penny-pinching ownership. That was on display again on Tuesday afternoon.

Just before the Pirates opened their final homestand of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers, the team announced that first baseman Rowdy Tellez and outfielder Michael A. Taylor had been designated for assignment. The timing of the moves was bizarre, mainly because there are only six games remaining in the season and both players had been semi-regulars all year. 

In the case of Tellez, it is especially suspicious because he was reportedly just four plate appearances away from a $200,000 bonus.

Rowdy Tellez had 421 plate appearances this season. He needed four more to cash a $200K incentive.

The Pirates DFA’d him today. pic.twitter.com/3ragVXtZuv

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) September 24, 2024

Despite the curious timing, manager Derek Shelton denies finances played a role with the move.

“It did not factor into the decision at all, it came down to when the minor league season ended and these guys getting here,” Shelton told reporters, per DK Pittsburgh Sports. “I think that’s what factored into the decision the most.”

However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind here.

The first is that Tellez did not have a particularly great year, still made over $3 million this season and was probably lucky to get the 421 plate appearances that he did get with this team this season. 

The second is that if this is what happened here, it is a classic example of a team being pennywise and pound foolish. The Pirates could have — and maybe should have — DFA’d him months earlier, and if they had, it would have been a justifiable performance decision.

But to let him get this far into the season, let him get that close to a bonus, and then make the decision to DFA him is just incredibly bad optics for a team that already has a terrible reputation for its spending habits. It is the type of thing that agents and players will pay attention to if they have to make a decision on similar offers between the Pirates and another team.