Despite limited appearances with the Atlanta Braves during the 2026 season, 1B/DH Rowdy Tellez made a kinda-sorta memorable impression.
How Acquired
Atlanta signed Tellez as a minor league free agent at the end of Spring Training. After playing in the World Baseball Classic with Mexico, Tellez inked a deal with the Braves on March 23, 2026.
What were the expectations?
With Matt Olson in the midst of his consecutive games streak keeping first base on lock, and fellow lefty-swinging first base/designated hitter Dominic Smith finding success
early in the regular season, Tellez was an emergency option for the team at Triple-A.
As the organization has done in the past — and again in 2026 — the Braves wanted a proven big league regular at Triple-A should Atlanta need to fill a first base gap during the regular season.
Performance-wise, Tellez came into 2026 the veteran of eight major league seasons with five major league teams, but had little to show for it: 0.1 fWAR in over 2,600 career PAs. While his bat had a fair bit of pop (.203 ISO), he generally underperformed his inputs (.314 wOBA, .330 xwOBA) due to a tendency to hit fly balls to center. Combine that with poor play at first base and no speed, and you get a replacement level guy.
Up until 2023, Tellez was actually hitting at an above-average clip. Since then, his career had kind of collapsed, as he was sub-replacement with the Brewers in ‘23, the Pirates in ‘24, and the Mariners in ‘25, before doing just enough to avoid finishing below replacement for a third straight year in a tail-end stint with the Rangers. As such, Tellez’ forecast via projections was yet another “replacement level at best” affair.
2026 results
Tellez played in only seven regular season games for Atlanta but made the most of his opportunities, ish. In 11 PAs he got two hits, including a pinch-hit homer against his former club, the Brewers, and walked once. In his sole start of the year, two days after hitting the pinch-hit homer, he got his only start, which drove in two.
Despite only being around for about three weeks, and taking a ride on the DFA/minor league deal carousel after the Braves removed him from the roster, the Braves nonetheless opted to carry Tellez on the Wild Card Series roster, and then actually kept him over Dominic Smith for the NLDS. He appeared in three NLDS games, garnering four PAs that included two walks, a strikeout, and a field out.
Tellez didn’t actually exceed replacement level, but it was all of 11 PAs. His previous low in an MLB season was 73 PAs in his debut year.
What went right?
Had Tellez joined the Braves at the beginning rather than the end of Spring Training, could he have earned the left-handed designated hitter role that Smith held for much of the year. As it it worked out, when the season concluded, it was Tellez on Atlanta’s active playoff roster and Smith on the outside looking in.
Though it was a tiny sample, Tellez actually had an incredible 11 PAs. He had three strikeouts and two easy flyouts, but did pretty well in his other six PAs:
- Robbed of a bloop hit
- Liner hit right to an infielder
- The 106 mph two-run single
- A walk
- A warning track out that might be a homer if not for the fact that it was in San Diego
- His pinch-hit homer
Put those together and you get a .506 xwOBA… with only a .331 wOBA and 108 wRC+ to show for it.
This then continued in the postseason in even more abbreviated fashion, because his one field out to go with two walks and a strikeout was a 108 mph screamer hit (off old-new Brave Evan Phillips) right at the right field: an aggregate .349 wOBA and .560 xwOBA.
As it shook out, Tellez’ biggest contribution game in NLDS Game Three, where he pinch-hit for Ha-Seong Kim against Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the tying run, with the Braves down 3-0 in the fifth. He drew a walk (and was replaced by Brewer Hicklen), possibly setting up a key rally for the Braves… but they managed just two groundouts and came away with loading the bases with just a single run. (The game also ended in that 3-1 score.)
What went wrong?
Tellez didn’t secure an MLB-affiliated opportunity until after the conclusion of the World Baseball Classic. His time on the big league roster was limited to seven games, the fewest since he debuted in 2018. Other than the shortened 2020 season, he’s appeared in more than 100 games every season going back to 2019.
He hit okay at Gwinnett (.364 wOBA and 116 wRC+,.355 xwOBA), but that’s probably somewhat disappointing for a longtime MLB veteran whose only contribution tends to be his bat. Still, probably the biggest disappointment is that he executed well in the limited opportunities he got, but hit the ball right at guys in a few key spots.
And, there was him getting carved up by Mason Miller in his only start, with a runner on third and one out in extra innings. It happens to pretty much everyone, but that one PA tipped his season WPA tally into well into the negative.
2027 outlook
Tellez will play next season at 32. He’s a poor defender limited to 1B/DH, and isn’t an asset at first base. He’s a walk-and-power guy, through and through, but both of those have been more sporadic since his career year in 2023.
His days a regular at the big league level may be over — but he’s probably still an okay bench bat who can provide quality PAs against right-handed pitchers. That bodes will for him to find a job as a big league reserve or Triple-A stash. A return to Atlanta on a minor league deal could be plausible, but with the labor situation, Tellez will likely have to wait until Spring Training — whenever that is — to find an opportunity.
He still projects as replacement level at best going forward.
