Rowdy Tellez Signs Minor League Deal, Set to Join Triple-A Gwinnett

Rowdy Tellez ended a long winter of free-agent waiting by signing a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves on March 21, with the 31-year-old first baseman/DH expected to begin the season at Triple-A Gwinnett. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the deal, which according to Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News would pay Tellez a $1.25 million base salary if he earns a spot on the MLB roster.

Tellez arrived on the market after splitting the 2025 season between Seattle and Texas without securing an offseason deal. He is an eight-year big league veteran who has posted double-digit home runs every season since 2019, the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign aside, and reached a career high of 35 homers with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2022. He is not walking in completely cold: Tellez suited up for Team Mexico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, going 1-for-9 with two walks and two strikeouts over four games at Daikin Park in Houston, where he was teammates with Braves infield prospect Nacho Alvarez Jr.

The numbers do raise legitimate questions about how Tellez fits Atlanta's roster construction. His career slugging percentage splits tell the story plainly: .452 against right-handed pitching, .370 against lefties, a gap wide enough that he does not solve the Braves' need for a right-handed bat in a DH platoon. He could, however, be an upgrade over Dominic Smith, whom Atlanta added during spring training as another left-handed first baseman/DH option. Smith's own roster situation carries some complexity: MLBTR's Steve Adams noted that Smith is among the veterans whose minor league deal includes an automatic opt-out opportunity. If Smith exercises that clause, the Braves would either need to add him to the Opening Day roster or release him, which would open an organizational spot regardless.

Tellez himself does not qualify for that same automatic opt-out protection. The mechanism applies only when a player with sufficient service time signs a minor league deal at least 10 days before the regular season begins, and Tellez's signing came too late to meet that threshold. His representatives at Primo Sports Group could still negotiate upward-mobility provisions into the contract, though no such terms have been confirmed.

With Atlanta reporting only four spring training games remaining, it is unclear whether the Braves will work Tellez into any Grapefruit League action before the calendar flips to the regular season. Either way, Triple-A Gwinnett is his destination to start 2026, and a strong showing there would be his most direct route back to a big league roster.