TULO AND BEHOLD
Former Jays shortstop takes some joy from spring-training homer against the team that gave up on him,
TAMPA, FLA.— The home run barely snuck over the wall in shallow right field at George M. Steinbrenner Field, but Troy Tulowitzki didn’t care.
It was the best spring-training homer the 34-year-old shortstop has hit in his life. Doing it against his former team, the Toronto Blue Jays, made it that much more special.
“That was the team that basically told me I couldn’t play any more,” Tulowitzki said after the New York Yankees beat the Jays 3-0 in their pre-season home opener. “It’s spring training, it is what it is, but it was a big day for myself.”
Tulowitzki knows he won’t always come up with big hits like he did on Monday, when he turned around a slider by good friend Marcus Stroman in an emotional at-bat, his first since July 2017 when he suffered an ankle injury that led to bone spurs.
Usually, Tulowitzki is just happy to be on the field. But Monday’s home run was the another step in proving wrong all those who said he wouldn’t make it back. It was a chance to stick it to the people who forced him to believe in himself because they didn’t believe in him.
Jays general manager Ross Atkins was among those who expressed doubts about Tulowitzki’s future. He said last December that Tulowitzki “will have to overachieve to play shortstop at an above-average level with above-average offensive performance for 140 games.”
“That would be unlikely, based on what has occurred in the last two-and-a-half years,” Atkins said at the time. “That doesn’t mean he’s not going to do it but, candidly, I don’t think that’s likely.”
Toronto released the shortstop, who they owed $38 million (U.S.), less than a week later, with Atkins suggesting it was a decision they thought would benefit both player and club. The Yankees signed Tulowitzki to a league-minimum contract in January.
Monday’s homer, the first of two Stroman gave up, wasn’t the first moment Tulowitzki felt validated for the hours he has put in trying to come back from injury.
“My instant validation (came) when I held a workout and I saw how many teams reached out to me,” he said. “That was instant validation, honestly. From that day forward, I said there are some believers there, even though there was a team that doubted me. There were a lot of teams that believed in me.”
He celebrated the home run all the way around the bases, knowing that Stroman, another fiery and emotive competitor, would understand and confident he was being cheered by members of both teams.
“I think some of the guys on the Blue Jays that were close friends of mine were excited, too,” Tulowitzki said. “You’d have to ask them, but they’re friends of mine, so why not?”
He certainly had a fan in Stroman, who has had an intimate look at the struggles Tulowitzki has navigated for nearly two years.
“I’ve been with him through a lot of that process and to see the tedious long days, to see the grind, to see him go through it, is pretty tough,” Stroman said. “I couldn’t be more ecstatic, more happy for someone like him because I’ve learned so much about the game of baseball and so much about life from that man and I’m forever grateful for him.”
The 27-year-old right-hander is also working his way back from injury, after struggling with blister and shoulder issues in 2018 and posting a careerhigh 5.54 ERA in 1021⁄ 3 innings.
Stroman struggled with his command Monday and gave up three hits while walking one and striking out one in two innings of work. But he said he felt like himself for the first time since 2017.
“I’m back to not having to think about anything,” Stroman said. “Not having to think about not throwing a certain pitch because I know I don’t have it in there, or I know I can’t get extension on a certain pitch … So just to go out there knowing I have my entire arsenal and repertoire in the tank, it’s going to be a fun year.”
The Jays and the Yankees will play 19 times this coming season, and Tulowitzki said he can’t wait to go head to head with Toronto in games that count. As happy as he was for his friend, Stroman warned Tulowitzki not to get used to that kind of result against him.
“It’s not going to happen inseason,” he said. “I promise you that.”
“That was the team that basically told me I couldn’t play any more.” TROY TULOWITZKI ON THE BLUE JAYS