Braves To Select Rowdy Tellez, Luke Williams

The Braves announced their roster for the 2026 NL Wild Card round of postseason play this morning, and it included a pair of non-roster infielders: Rowdy Tellez and Luke Williams. Despite not being on the 40-man roster, both players were eligible for postseason inclusion by virtue of the fact that they were in the organization prior to Sept. 1.

Atlanta hasn’t formally announced any transactions yet, but their transaction log at MLB.com indicates that right-hander Ricky Vanasco has been designated for assignment. Vanasco and fellow right-hander Elieser Hernández are no longer listed under the Braves’ 40-man roster, while Tellez and Williams have both been added. That presumably indicates another DFA for Hernández.

Atlanta is carrying 11 pitchers for the Wild Card round of play: Dylan Dodd, Didier Fuentes, Grant Holmes, Raisel Iglesias, Ray Kerr, Dylan Lee, Tyler Mahle, Victor Mederos, Chris Sale, Robert Suarez and Brent Suter.

That leaves the Braves with the following 15 position players to round out the roster: Ozzie Albies, Ha-Seong Kim, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Dominic Smith, Tellez, Williams, Drake Baldwin, Sean Murphy, Ronald Acuña Jr., Mauricio Dubón, Michael Harris II, Brewer Hicklen, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski.

Tellez and Williams are fairly surprising additions. The former appeared in seven games with Atlanta this season and went 2-for-10 with a homer and a double. The latter logged only one plate appearance in the majors this season but has spent parts of three seasons in the majors with the Braves. They’ve both spent the majority of the 2026 season with the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett.

The 31-year-old Tellez will give manager Walt Weiss a lefty-swinging bat off the bench. He’s not going to start over Olson at first base but can bring plenty of power to the plate in a pinch-hitting role against a tough righty. Tellez has roughly league-average offensive production against righties in his career, due largely to a sub-par .299 OBP. However, he’s ripped 108 home runs and posted a .217 ISO (slugging minus batting average) in 2128 career plate appearances versus righties. If he’s inserted as a pinch-hitter, it’ll likely be against a right-handed pitcher when there’s a need for a big extra-base hit.

Williams, 30, carries just a .212/.272/.280 bating line in 350 plate appearances across parts of six big league seasons. He can play just about anywhere on the diamond though, having logged at least seven major league frames at every position other than catcher (pitcher included). That versatility and the glut of 15 position players will give Weiss plenty of options to exploit matchups with pinch-hitters and/or pinch-runners late in games.

Vanasco, 28 next month, was a waiver claim out of the Tigers organization in late August. He pitched in five games for Detroit this season but never received a call to the majors with Atlanta. Vanasco has pitched only 10 1/3 innings in the majors to this point in his career and has been tagged for 14 runs in that tiny sample. He logged a 3.31 ERA in 54 1/3 Triple-A frames this year, however, and has a lifetime 3.18 ERA in parts of four seasons at the top minor league level (124 1/3 innings). Vanasco has been outrighted in the past and can elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Hernández is plenty familiar with this carousel by now. He signed a minor league contract with Atlanta over the winter and has been selected to the big league roster on four separate occasions — most recently on Sept. 24. He was quickly designated for assignment following the three prior calls to the majors. Each time, he cleared waivers, elected free agency, and re-signed on a new minor league contract.

It’s the same gambit the Braves have employed with swingmen Carlos Carrasco and Jesse Chavez in the past; Atlanta effectively uses pitchers in this role as a 41st man on the 40-man roster. The players are on board with the setup. It affords them a fair bit of major league service time, and frequently renegotiating new minor league deals allows them to push for additional perks to continue in a relatively tumultuous role.

Hernández has pitched a dozen big league innings this year and allowed only a 2.25 earned run average. His Triple-A numbers aren’t as strong but are still solid: 85 1/3 innings, 4.64 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate. Hernández carries a career 4.99 ERA in 315 1/3 major league innings, mostly coming with the Marlins, and he’s also spent time overseas in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Assuming he clears waivers once again, Hernández will have the choice of accepting an outright assignment (and thus retaining postseason eligibility) or getting a headstart on free agency. Players with more than three years of major league service who have been outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster can become minor league free agents in the offseason. Hernández has five-plus years. In this instance, it might make more sense for him to accept the assignment just to stick around as a depth option. Either way, it feels like there’s a good chance he’ll be with Atlanta next spring as a non-roster invitee.