Hours before the Pirates fell to the Brewers, 7-2, in the series-opener of their three-game set, which is the team's second-to-last series of the season, the organization announced that it was designating veterans Rowdy Tellez and Michael A. Taylor for assignment and recalling Liover Peguero and Joshua Palacios from Class AAA Indianapolis.
Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton would both say that the decision was made to allow Peguero and Palacios to play at the big-league level for the final six games of 2024 after the minor-league season ended on Sunday. Cherington would add that while he was aware of Tellez's contract situation -- the first baseman was four plate appearances away from earning a $200,000 bonus, according to Ethan Hullihen -- it played no factor in the decision.
"No factor at all, zero factor in the decision," Cherington said. "Aware of it, certainly, I'm aware of the contracts that all players have. No factor at all, zero. And, no, I'm not concerned, if you're asking about optics going forward and how it affects business and things like that, no. Contracts are negotiated in good faith and then they live out. We feel like we gave Rowdy lots of opportunity this year and to his credit he fought through some difficult times earlier in the year and fought himself out of it. Had periods of success and periods of frustration and this is just where we got to this season. It had nothing to do with where the plate appearances were lining up."
Shelton said something similar earlier in the afternoon, saying: "In a situation like this, we wanted to get a couple of younger players who we think are going to be a part of our future up here. That came at the expense of two veteran, professional guys."
I'll take this opportunity to point out that Tellez, 29, is only three months older than Palacios.
Rather than allow two "professional guys" to finish off the final six games of the season, Cherington decided to recall two players who were hitting for averages of .257 (Peguero) and .291 (Palacios) in Indianapolis and have also played in the big leagues before.
Over the last four years, Palacios has played in 153 games with four different franchises and has garnered 309 at-bats with the Pirates over the last two seasons.
Peguero, 23, played in 59 games for the Pirates last season and slashed .237/.280/.374 but has spent most of this season in the minors where he's tallied 127 hits, 79 RBIs, 29 doubles and 46 extra-base hits.
Still, Cherington said he wants to get a better look at both players and wants them to be involved in the final week of this season. However, he even admitted that "it's not going to be a ton of playing time." Shelton also said it would be a "challenge" to get everyone the right amount of at-bats in the final two series.
So, what gives?
Here's Cherington's lengthy response:
The issue here is the timing of the decision, not the decision itself. Cherington's response to my second question sells itself: "As long as Indy is playing, there is value in playing every day. You balance that versus maybe less playing time in the big leagues, and you know, no perfect science behind that, but in those two cases, we felt like it was best to just let them play every day through the end of the Triple-A season and call them up."
However, it's not like Peguero and Palacios would be replacing two players who were helping the Pirates make the playoffs. Outside of helping Oneil Cruz with his transition to the outfield, Taylor was slashing .200/.210/.467 in September and slashed .153/.219/.186 in August.
After struggling in April and May, Tellez bounced back in June, July and August where he was hitting above or around .300 but had started to regress this month and was slashing .116/.255/.209. He had only tallied two hits over the last 10 games.
If Cherington and the Pirates organization wanted to give Peguero, Palacios and other younger players an extended look at the major-league level, this move should've been made earlier this month, despite the minor-league season still going on or not, as both players could have contributed and gotten more value out of their time in the majors.
Instead, here we are.
With just five games left in the season, Peguero and Palacios aren't likely to get a plethora of at-bats. They'll get some, but I'm not sure if the value of those at-bats will outweigh the consequences of this decision in the future. But, it doesn't seem as though Cherington is concerned about that.
"These things are unfortunately a difficult part of the business. You have to have these conversations about releasing players," Cherington said. "I’ve never experienced that affecting anything going forward. Had good conversations with Rowdy and Michael, specifically in terms of that. We’ll have time to get into the offseason and get into offseason planning. But I don’t anticipate any issue from it."
