Balancing the game of life
Tellez finds peace — a gift from mom battling brain cancer
BUFFALO— On the inside of Rowdy Tellez’s left wrist, there is a tattoo.
“Proverbs 31:25,” it reads in black ink, an off-season addition for the Buffalo Bisons’ 23-year-old first baseman.
“She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future,” the Blue Jays prospect said, reciting the biblical reference in the home dugout at Coca-Cola Field this past week.
It is for his mom Lori, who is battling cancer.
After discovering a lump in her armpit, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma in late 2016. Little more than a year ago, she called from Tellez’s childhood home in Elk Grove, Calif. with the news that she was cancer-free. But twice since spring training — in March, and for 10 days in early July — Tellez has travelled more than 2,500 miles to be home with his family after the aggressive cancer returned.
Today, he is rarely away from his phone. Every time he steps on the field — 90 times this season, heading into Friday — he wonders: “‘When we get back, is my mom going to be alive?”
“Between 2017 and 2018, it’s taken a dramatic bad turn for my family with my mom,” Tellez said in an interview. “She was cancer-free as of, like, June of last year and now we’re working with probably a fatal form of brain cancer.
“We’re seeing a change in all of us in the family, and it’s affecting me on and off the field — for the better, I would say. I know it’s a struggle to have my mom in the state that she’s in, but everything happens for a reason and I accept that.”
Tellez says he doesn’t turn off his emotions when he gets to the park.
“It’s one of those things you’re never going to get away from,” he said.
Last season, trying to play during his mom’s illness for the first time, he kept his feelings to himself, believing it was the best way to cope. This season has been different. He says that talking more openly about what he’s going through has helped, on and off the field.
“Being vulnerable isn’t a bad thing,” he said. “It allows me to be a better player, to listen better, to understand. It allows me to be a better person, and that’s … been the biggest thing.
“My teammates and my coaching staff have told me: ‘You being more vulnerable has made you a better person, a better teammate.’ I’ve calmed down.
“I don’t get mad as often ... Having a bad game’s not always fun, but it could always be worse. My mom fights every day for her life and doesn’t know if she’s going to see the next one. If I get mad if I go 0-for-4, that’s pretty selfish of me.”
This season he has reconnected with the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins, a friend growing up. Hoskins’ mom Cathy died of breast cancer in 2009, when the outfielder was a sophomore in high school.
Tellez has also leaned on Dee Brown — the scout who helped sign the 30th-round draft pick — who, as the first baseman put it, has “lost all three of his moms.”
Another constant source of support through the Double-A and Triple-A levels has been Bisons manager Bobby Meacham.
“We talk almost every day about it,” Tellez said. “Anything from prayers to questions I have about the situation. Just a lot of things.”
While Tellez’s outlook has changed, his big-league goals have not.
After hitting .297 with the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats in 2016, putting up 23 home runs and 81RBIs in124 games, he arrived at spring training last year ranked among the Jays’ top10 prospects. At the time, with Edwin Encarnacion gone to Cleveland via free agency and Justin Smoak yet to break out, Tellez was in the discussion for major-league duty that summer.
But he struggled at the Triple-A level, slashing .222/.295/ .333 with six home runs and 56 RBIs in122 games, and dropped to No. 30 in the Blue Jays system according to MLB Pipeline.
He recalls being frustrated “non-stop” last season, and vowed to never let it happen again.
“I learned a lot last year, and I’ve really incorporated that in- to how I live my life and how I play now,” he said. “It’s trending in the right direction.”
Through Thursday, Tellez was hitting a solid .271 with 10 homers and 41 RBIs. He feels he’s been hitting the ball consistently hard and to all fields, and that he is better at the plate than talent evaluators give him credit for.
The defensive side of the game will always be a work in progress, he adds honestly, but not for lack of effort. Tellez credits Smoak, injured shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, Meacham and Jays third-base coach Luis Rivera for pointing him in the right direction.
“I’m going to work on every aspect of my game, but defence is something people always fault me for — saying it’s not good, I’m a defensive liability,” he says, “But I think it’s getting better every year, as long as I keep working on it.”
In between the work and the worry, Tellez is trying to keep the game of baseball in perspective.
“I’m just here to help the team win and have some fun,” he says. “Can’t be mad that we get paid to play a game that kids do ... we’ve played this our whole lives and now we’re getting paid to do it, so you can’t be frustrated about something like that.”