TORONTO -- Rowdy Tellez's biggest fan is also his good-luck charm, and there’s a sizable track record to prove it.
For four straight years, 7-year-old Xander Brown has made the voyage to see Tellez play in person, even as the slugger’s career has spanned tenures with Toronto, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and now Seattle. And after Saturday afternoon’s emphatic grand slam in the 12th inning of an 8-4 win over the Blue Jays, Tellez has now homered thrice when Xander is in the house.
And the latest act was easily the most dramatic.
“He’s a good kid,” Tellez said. “He cracks me up. His parents are good people. ... I just always look at the bigger picture. We’re normal, I think, on the inside. We’re normal people and you don’t realize who you impact or how far your impact goes.”
Sitting fastball in a full count with two outs against reliever Jacob Barnes, Tellez demolished the middle-in offering and lined it a Statcast-projected 430 feet and beyond the visitors' bullpen at Rogers Centre to put a punctuating touch on the marathon matinee that lasted three hours and 51 minutes, capping the Mariners’ seventh win in their past nine games.
Making the moment sweeter was that Tellez's heroics came in the venue where he made his MLB debut on Sept. 5, 2018, and against the organization that he grew up with -- but also with Xander in attendance.
“I think in reality I’m just a normal person with a cool job and a bad haircut,” Tellez said. “I like to keep it honest. People are going to want to look up to you and you’ve got to be a role model whether you want to or not. He keeps it funny, makes me laugh, keeps me young.”
Typically, Xander’s visits are on his birthday -- June 26 -- but his parents wanted to make their annual trip early while the Mariners were nearby. The Browns live in London, Ontario, about a two-hour trek to Toronto.
The tradition actually began after Tellez was traded from the Blue Jays to the Brewers on July 6, 2021. But Xander, who is autistic, had already latched on to Tellez from watching him on TV.
So, when Xander asked his parents to see Tellez in person the following summer, for his 5th birthday, the Browns made a 500-mile drive to Milwaukee for a game that Tellez homered twice in. The following year, in 2023, the Browns flew to New York to see Tellez against the Mets, though Xander joked that he had to settle for a double. But in ‘24, when Tellez was with the Pirates and playing in Cincinnati, he was back on the board in the power department with another homer.
“I’ll take one,” Xander said pregame on Saturday of a Tellez homer. “But he got one last night. I’ll just be happy if he gets on base.”
Indeed, Tellez also homered in Friday’s series opener, after beginning the season with just one long ball and a .376 OPS in his first 13 games. He’s credited extensive work on this road trip with Mariners director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer.
“I'm just finding the barrel,” Tellez said, “just making sure I'm not trying to do too much and hit a ball -- every swing, hit it out of the ballpark -- I'm just trying to put the bat on the ball and give myself a chance. It's hard to do anything positive when you're swinging and missing a lot. So, I'm just trying to do those little things again.”
Tellez turned 30 in March and is still trying to prove himself with his new Mariners teammates after signing a split Minor League contract at the outset of Spring Training. Even in the high-pressured MLB environment, Xander offers a sense of levity.
“I think it’s a reality check too,” Tellez said. “Like, no matter how you’re doing, you’re going to have someone that wants to be like you, or someone that looks up to you. Obviously, I’m not having the best start to the season for myself. But it doesn’t matter to some people.
“Xander is one of them in that I’m just Rowdy, who is a baseball player, and he doesn’t see me for the numbers, doesn’t see me for anything. And I think that brings me comfort, too -- just knowing like no matter what you do, you can impact people. It doesn’t matter what you do on the field.”