Brewers: Rowdy Tellez Finds his Power in Milwaukee

This is a very good Milwaukee Brewers team, but one of the areas that President of Baseball Operations David Stearns has had to address is the first base position. Keston Hiura has continued to struggle at the plate for much of the season and is now in Triple-A. While Daniel Vogelbach found some power before ending up on the IL, but he is still a limited player with a .709 OPS this season.

So before the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Eduardo Escobar, who will see some action at first base, they first traded for Rowdy Tellez.

Prior to the 2021 season, Tellez had been in the big leagues for three seasons and found some success in Toronto. Over 609 plate appearances from 2018 through 2020, he recorded a .250 average, a .797 OPS with 33 home runs, 33 doubles, and an OPS+ of 111. These numbers also included an .886 OPS last season.

However, 2021 with Toronto got off to a rough start. In 50 games with the Blue Jays, Tellez was batting .209 with a .610 OPS and only four home runs. With the emergence of Vlad Guerrero Jr, Tellez was the odd man out at first base and had spent some time in Triple-A.

Even his first few appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers were rough, to say the least. In his first nine games with the Crew, Tellez was batting just .154 with four strikeouts, no home runs, and a lowly .487 OPS. But as we’ve seen in baseball, things can change very quickly, and they certainly have for Tellez.

Since July 23rd, Tellez has played in another nine games and is hitting .394 over his 36 plate appearances with four home runs — matching his season total in Toronto — two doubles, and an impressive 1.263 OPS while slugging .818. On top of that, his strikeout rate is down compared to his career numbers, and his walk rate is slightly up.

As a result, Tellez’s season OPS with the Crew jumped from .487 to 1.038, and his OPS+ sits at a ridiculous 176–for some context, the league average is 100. It was really only a matter of time before we saw that pop from Tellez’s bat; he finished the 2020 season ranking in the 99th percentile in max exit velocity, as well as in the 81st percentile in hard-hit rate, and the 82nd percentile in xSLG, according to Baseball Savant.

With Escobar being a switch hitter, we are going to see him at first base against lefties which could create a platoon role at first base for him and the left-handed Tellez for the remainder of the season, with Vogelbach primarily coming off the bench.

With that said, it’s worth noting that Tellez does have reverse splits this season, recording a .701 OPS against righties and an .808 OPS against lefties. Also, with the way Tellez is swinging the bat, he is someone we will want to see in the lineup on a regular basis.

Stearns and the Milwaukee Brewers struck gold earlier in the season when they traded for Willy Adames. While I’m not going to predict that Tellez has that level of impact, in the very early stages, this looks like it could be another trade that the Crew has done very well with.