Tellez adapts to slower track with Bisons
First baseman acknowledges he bought into a little of the spring training hype
BUFFALO— Rowdy Tellez is a hard name to miss, even in the diverse world of major league baseball.
Add the unique moniker to the fact that he’s one of the Blue Jays’ top prospects, playing a position — first base — that appeared to be a team weakness heading into the season, and the 22-year-old was bound to draw extra attention in the spring.
After Edwin Encarnacion’s freeagent departure for Cleveland and before Justin Smoak’s emergence, there were calls for the Jays to fasttrack Tellez to The Show.
Months later, with Smoak an allstar and Tellez still finding his way with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, there’s much less buzz. And while he’s looking forward to his turn in the big leagues, that’s OK with Tellez.
“Unfortunately it hasn’t been the year I planned, but it’s all about learning and understanding what you need to work on,” he said this past weekend. “I’m grateful that I’m here learning. I’ve always felt like I was ready to be up there, but looking back now it’s better to do it here than have a whole bunch of eyes up there watching you. “
Tellez — batting .211 with six home runs, 36 RBIs and a .617 on-base plus slugging mark — heard the talk in the spring, but tried to tune it out.
The California native was No. 89 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list in May before dropping off altogether by mid-season.
“(Blue Jays general manager) Ross Atkins and (president and CEO) Mark Shapiro were always saying DBTH — don’t believe the hype — and gave me some stories about players that they had dealt with,” he said.
“I tried my best not to do it. Subconsciously, maybe it happened a lit- tle bit and that’s why I’m not having the season (I wanted), but it’s a learning experience.”
Tellez has been praised for his willingness to learn. The story out of spring training was that he took six pages of notes during a dinner with Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. It’s true, Tellez says with a laugh — to a point.
“I didn’t do it while we were eating, like people said. I went home and wrote it down. Everybody thought I was doing it on my phone in front of him. I was like: no.”
The infielder says he feels fortunate to play in an organization chock full of baseball success stories and tries to soak up as much information as possible.
“Just being able to learn as much as you can and, even if you don’t like it, being able to understand where they’re coming from, their background and giving them a chance,” he says.
“That’s one thing I’ve struggled on over the course of my career, and that’s one thing I need to work on. I think that’s been a big change this year, making sure I can hear everybody out and learn as much as I can along the way, because once you’re at the highest level you’re at the highest level. Everybody’s got their eyes on you.”
Tellez admitted feeling a “little weird” when he picked the brain of Smoak, who mans the position he hopes to play, but found a willing mentor — especially when it comes to learning about defence.
“I was playing to not make errors instead of playing to make plays, and that was what was hurting me,” said Tellez, who now works on his hands as part of his daily routine.
“That’s something that I learned from him in spring training: when the ball is hit, don’t ever second guess what you have. I was doing that a little bit, but Smoaky, he’s awesome and he helped me a lot with understanding that.”