The Blue Jays released veteran shortstop Troy Tulowitzki last week during the Winter Meetings and will now pick up the tab on the rest of his big contract while he is free to sign with any team.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic has reported that the Pirates are one of the teams interested in his services. The Pirates, in need of a shortstop, are currently also connected to Diamondbacks’ Nick Ahmed and free agents Jose Iglesias and Freddy Iglesias. But should the Pirates take the chance on Tulowitzki?
Tulowitzki, 34, began his big league career in Colorado under then-Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, who is now the Pirates manager. So the connection is definitely there for the team to pursue him and it’s likely that Hurdle has been involved in the process of looking into Tulowitzki.
However, Tulowitzki is nowhere near the same player he was nearly a decade ago when Clint Hurdle was fired by the Rockies. He has fallen off the last few years since being acquired by the Blue Jays in 2015.
He was good for the Jays the rest of 2015 and all of 2016, where he was still rather productive at the plate and in the field, despite it being nowhere near his prime form, but that is to be expected for most guys on the wrong half of 30 years old.
However, it all has caught up to him the last couple of years. Injuries, in particular, have derailed him. He was limited to only 66 games for the Blue Jays in 2017 and did not play at all in 2018. His injury-stricken 2017 was lackluster as well. So not only has he not played in awhile, but he hasn’t even been productive in two years.
However, the reports coming out on his health as of now have been positive, even some saying he’s as healthy as he’s been in years. But there is concern as to why the Blue Jays went through all the rehab with him over the year or so, only to cut him when there’s a potential light at the end of the tunnel. To pay the guy to not play for them when he is expected to at least put up decent production, based on projection, throws up a red flag since the Blue Jays have the inside knowledge on his health right now.
It also doesn’t help that Blue Jays’ GM Ross Atkins didn’t give Tulowitzki a vote of confidence, saying that he’d have to “overachieve” to play shortstop at an above-average level for even 140 games. That is coming from a guy who knows a lot about Tulowitzki’s rehab and what he’s had to do the last couple of years. For him to say that also throws up a red flag for sure.
If the Pirates are to take a chance on Tulowitzki, they better have another plan in place to figure out shortstop. As Atkins said, it’s unlikely Tulowitzki can supplant the position almost everyday. While they could do this internally with Erik Gonzalez and Kevin Newman, it is clear that the Pirates want to upgrade the position, not rely on an aging, injury-plagued player and then using the internal options they are already trying to upgrade from in the first place.
So overall, Tulowitzki at the minimum salary could be worth the risk, but only if there’s another move behind it to strengthen the position even further. The Pirates cannot afford to be caught relying on Tulowitzki/Gonzalez/Newman to fix their team’s biggest gaping hole.
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