Tellez has been getting regular at bats, but for the last month he hasn’t been hitting much (OPS of .696) even while the vast majority of those ABs have come against RHP, either when he starts or enters as a PH or mid game replacement. His career splits pretty clearly indicate that he hits RHP much better than LHP.
Given that the Brewers are the worst (or very close to it) hitting team in MLB against LHP, they signed Ruf a couple of days after he was DFAd by the Giants (who released him as he returned from the IL with a wrist inflammation) in an attempt to help out a glaring weak spot.
Though he didn’t do much of anything in his short stint with the Brewers, he did seem to have more quality ABs and made some pretty good contact in that short time for someone who hadn’t been in a game for 3 weeks. He clearly passed the low bar established by Voit and Winker. On the Brewers, his K rate of 7 in 30 ABs (23%) almost qualifies him as a “contact hitter) 😀.
IMHO it made sense to have him in the starting lineup over Tellez yesterday. I can accept that reasonable minds could differ over that