Tellez Keeping Dream Alive with Stripers

If Rowdy Tellez never plays another big-league game, he will finish with more home runs than first-ballot Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Ichiro Suzuki and more base hits than 2003 AL Rookie of the Year finalist Rocco Baldelli. But the 31-year-old journeyman first baseman/designated hitter is not ready to call it quits after amassing 122 homers and 552 base knocks, which explains why, in late March, he agreed to a Minor League deal with the Atlanta Braves, his sixth organization in the past eight years.

Tellez, who grew up in a Jewish household in northern California, did not break camp with the Braves and was subsequently assigned to the Gwinnett Stripers, where he will likely play his first full season of Minor League Baseball since he was a farmhand of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2018, the same year in which he made his MLB debut and lost his mother, Lori, to cancer. (“I was called up during probably the worst part of my life,” Tellez would say later). Thus far, Tellez’s season for the Stripers has mirrored his track record in the big leagues: He has struggled to maintain an average well above .200 but has flashed signs of his trademark power by blasting five homers and knocking in 15 runs.

Last Thursday evening against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (the Miami Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate), Tellez had his signature moment of the young season by launching a 431-foot three-run moonshot over the right-centerfield fence that propelled the Stripers to a 6-5 win. For good measure, Tellez, not exactly known for being a burner on the basepaths, has even swiped a couple bags for a Gwinnett team that currently sits in second place in the International League West standings and was recently graced with the presence of rehabbing All-Stars Spencer Strider and Sean Murphy.

After a 2025 season split between the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, during which he crushed 17 homers and drove in 49 runs, Tellez, who, was unavailable for an interview for this story, settled in Gwinnett after no other organization, including the Rangers for whom he delivered some timely hits down the stretch, offered him an invite to big league training camp. That development came as somewhat of a surprise as he not only produced but, by all accounts, was also a solid clubhouse guy for a Rangers team that stayed in contention until the season’s final week.

“My job is just to come here and impact the team in any way I can,” Tellez said last July coming out of the All-Star break, shortly after the Rangers signed him upon his release from the Mariners. “Whatever [Rangers manager Bruce Bochy] asks me to do, whatever they need me to do, I’m going to come out here and give everything I got and do what I need to do. I just want to impact the team and be able to fill any hole they need me to. I feel like I’m a very good clubhouse presence. I have fun, I smile. For me, it’s also just bringing a positive attitude and bringing something here.”

When Tellez came over to Braves’ camp after a strong World Baseball Classic showing for Team Mexico — just like in 2023, Tellez opted to represent his heritage on the family’s paternal side and passed on playing for Israel — some believed he had a legitimate chance to crack the Atlanta roster this spring, either as a part-time designated hitter or pinch-hitter against righties. Specifically, the clear path Tellez had to become the Braves’ everyday DH was a scenario in which the newly-acquired Dominic Smith, coming off a so-so spring training, would decide to exercise his opt-out clause.

But as April yields to May, the white-hot Braves will likely not be calling up Tellez anytime soon as Smith did not trigger the opt-out and is in fact off to a torrid start — he could very well be among Atlanta’s large contingent of All-Stars at the Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia this July — with a stranglehold on the DH role for the foreseeable future. Veteran utilityman Kyle Farmer can also be plugged in at DH when Smith needs a breather, and over at first, perennial All-Star Matt Olson is projected to once again play every single game this season. Meanwhile, Murphy, who underwent right hip surgery back in September, is expected to wrap up his rehab work in the coming days and when he’s not catching, provides first-year Braves manager Walt Weiss with yet another option at DH.

… I’m going to come out here and give everything I got and do what I need to do. I just want to impact the team and be able to fill any hole they need me to. I feel like I’m a very good clubhouse presence. I have fun, I smile. For me, it’s also just bringing a positive attitude and bringing something here.

Thus, barring any unforeseen significant injuries, Tellez appears to be a long-shot for a call-up to Atlanta this summer. But, of course, injuries are an inevitable part of any MLB season and Tellez, merely four years removed from bashing 35 homers and knocking in 89 runs for the Milwaukee Brewers and two years from being the Pittsburgh Pirates’ full-time first baseman, provides solid organizational depth for Atlanta, representing a viable insurance option that many clubs sorely lack.

While it may seem preposterously early to entertain such thoughts, should the Braves, owners of the best record in baseball, win their second title this decade in October, all Tellez would need is one day of big league service time this summer to add a World Series ring to his baseball résumé.

Just another reason to keep grinding away in Gwinnett for the time being.