Morning Rundown: Pirates DFA Michael A. Taylor, Rowdy Tellez, lost to Brewers 7-2
Pirates DFA two, recall another two, lose Tuesday to Brewers
Before their game on Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they had designated for assignment Rowdy Tellez and Michael A. Taylor.
Both players were with the team on one-year deals and were set to become free agents after the season. This allowed the Pirates to recall Liover Peguero and Joshua Palacios from the minors.
Tellez was somewhat of a polarizing player for the Pirates, and not always for the right reasons. He got off to a horrible start, batting .177/.239/.223 with a wRC+ of 30 through May.
The numbers have been much better since, slashing .277/.330/.478 (120 wRC+) from June 1 through the rest of the season. He was struggling in September (38 wRC+), playing 16 games and 51 plate appearances.
What shook things up with the Tellez DFA was that he was four plate appearances away from a $200,000 bonus kicked in.
The Pirates had all season to make this move, and with him struggling in September, there was merit to it, but the timing, on the other hand, was horrible.
Especially with that article from The Athletic floating out there chronicling the penny-pinching ways of the organization.
It was assumed that Taylor would see some regression after hitting a career-high 21 home runs, but he fell off a cliff this year. His 50 wRC+ was nearly 30 points below his career average, and he only hit five home runs.
Palacios had 25 extra bases hits in 28 games with Triple-A Indianapolis. He was hitting .230/.319/.344 in 20 games with the Pirates earlier in the season.
Although he didn’t reach his 20/20 mark like a year ago, Peguero had a solid season with Indianapolis. He was among the Pirates minor league leaders in RBI (79) while also hitting double-digits in home runs (13) and stolen bases (14).
Five games (Palacios did pinch-hit on Tuesday) isn’t enough time to make any decisions based on performance, but a strong finish from someone like Peguero can’t hurt.
The Pirates outhit the Milwaukee Brewers but were outdone where it matters, losing 7-2 in game one of the last home series of the season. Jared Triolo went 3-4 with an RBI, and Nick Yorke drove in the other run on a sacrifice fly.
Bailey Falter allowed four earned runs on five hits and a walk across five innings pitched. Isaac Mattson walked four batters in 1.1 innings pitched, allowing three earned runs.
David Bednar worked a scoreless ninth inning.
Luis Ortiz will face Freddy Peralta in his last start of the regular season.
With the regular season ending, I wanted to gauge whether there is interest in continuing the gameday threads through the playoffs like we did last year.
That way, those who continue to follow along after the Pirates are done playing have a place where they can talk about the playoffs.
Just let me know in the comments below if you are interested. I have no problem throwing them together if there are enough of you.
Pittsburgh Pirates recalled RF Joshua Palacios from Indianapolis Indians
Pittsburgh Pirates recalled SS Liover Peguero from Indianapolis Indians
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Top Exit Velocity
Oneil Cruz - 111.8 mph - Groundout
Andrew McCutchen - 103.8 mph - Single
Jared Triolo - 102.2 mph - Single
Isiah Kiner-Falefa - 102.1 mph - Groundout
Oneil Cruz - 102.1 mph - Lineout
Top Pitch Velocity
David Bednar - 98.6 mph
David Bednar - 98.4 mph
David Bednar - 98 mph
Isaac Mattson - 96.8 mph
David Bednar - 96.5 mph
Most Whiffs
Baley Falter - 7
Joey Wentz - 5
David Bednar - 3
Isaac Mattson - 3
I guess MLB not dropping the AFL rosters on my birthday yesterday was a present in it's own that I didn't actually have to 'work' lol.
I'll have a full write up on the rosters tomorrow, and start again on the postseason awards on Friday.
Love the idea of a game thread for the playoffs. We need to build up commenting endurance for next year when the Bucs go all the way!