June 26: The Mariners announced Thursday that Tellez is on unconditional release waivers. Assuming he clears, he’ll be free to sign with any team for the prorated league minimum.
June 20: The Mariners have designated first baseman Rowdy Tellez for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to outfielder/first baseman Luke Raley, who’s been activated from the injured list after missing seven weeks with an oblique strain.
Tellez, 30, is in his eighth big league season and has popped 11 home runs while serving as Seattle’s primary first baseman. Early in the year, he was expected to see more time at designated hitter for skipper Dan Wilson, but the injury to Raley and ongoing injury issues for infielder Jorge Polanco (who was accordingly relegated to DH work) pushed Tellez into the field on a regular basis.
After a disastrous start to his season, Tellez righted the ship in mid-April and has been a serviceable but flawed source of power in the heart of the Mariners’ order. He reached base just once in his first 23 plate appearances but has since swatted 11 homers and slugged .484. That power comes with a low average and bottom-of-the-barrel OBP, however. Tellez rarely walks, is easy to position against defensively due to his extreme-pull approach, and is measured by Statcast as the slowest player in baseball (eliminating virtually any chance of him reaching via infield hit).
Dating back to April 11, Tellez has taken 162 turns at the plate and is hitting .229/.265/.484. He’s been shielded almost entirely from left-handed pitching, receiving just 14 plate appearances and reaching base only twice (one single, one hit-by-pitch). He’s hitting .219/.257/.463 against right-handed pitching this year.
With Raley nearing a return, it seemed likely that either Tellez or fellow veteran first base option Donovan Solano could be pushed off the roster. Since both Tellez and Raley hit left-handed, the Mariners opted to move on from the veteran who can keep a platoon intact. Solano has helped his cause by hitting better over the past month, albeit in an excessively limited role. He’s batted .333/.394/.467 since May 20 but done so in only 33 plate appearances (26 of them against lefties).
For the time being, Solano and Raley will presumably platoon at first base. That’s not an ideal setup, as Raley is more comfortable in the outfield than at first and Solano has struggled this season overall. The Mariners will, at the very least, likely explore the trade market for righty-swinging options at first base in the weeks ahead. Dominic Canzone has provided slightly better-than-average offense in right field since being called up earlier this month (.233/.303/.400 in 33 plate appearances), but if he struggles like he has in two prior MLB seasons, the Mariners could move Raley to right field. That would set them up to either give prospect Tyler Locklear a run at first base or explore the trade market for a full-time upgrade either at first base or in right field.
The Mariners will have five days to trade Tellez or place him on waivers. He originally signed a minor league contract with Seattle but locked in a $1.5MM salary when he made the roster after a big spring performance. He’s still owed about $806K of that sum, as of this writing.
Any team that claims Tellez off waivers would assume the entirety of that remaining salary. If the M’s find an interested trade partner, they could include some cash to offset the salary in exchange for what would still likely be a nominal prospect return. Since waivers are a 48-hour process, we’ll know the outcome of Tellez’s DFA within a maximum of one week’s time. In the event that he clears waivers, Tellez has enough service time to elect free agency and retain the remaining money on this year’s salary.
