Tulowitzki reflects on ‘great times’ with Blue Jays
Troy Tulowitzki was shocked when he learned that he was being traded from the Colorado Rockies to the Toronto Blue Jays in July 2015.
Not only would he be joining a new team in a new country, the star shortstop would be joining a club that wasn’t even in the playoff picture — not when he first got there, anyway.
Tulowitzki, who announced his retirement from Major League Baseball last week, spoke about that trade to Toronto on a conference call Monday, almost four years to the day that it happened.
“I thought the whole time I was going to go to a team that was sitting pretty in first place, but sure enough, we made a run that year and got in the playoffs,” Tulowitzki said. “And the next year we had another good year and got back in the playoffs. That experience was fun.”
Tulowitzki missed most of the past two seasons with leg injuries, and his retirement last Thursday came more than three months after he played in his last game for the New York Yankees.
He was traded to Toronto on July 28, 2015, and helped the Blue Jays break a 22-year playoff drought, reaching the American League Championship Series for the first time since 1993.
The Blue Jays were 50-51 — fourth in the American League East — when Tulowitzki arrived in Toronto.
They went 43-18 the rest of the year.
“There were some great times, great teammates, players that I still talk to to this day,” Tulowitzki said when asked how he’ll reflect on his time with the Blue Jays.
“And I’ll never forget that experience in Toronto when (Jose) Bautista had that bat-flip home run (in Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series) in a lifetime.”
Tulowitzki hit .254 with 24 homers and 79 RBIs in 2016, his last full season in the majors, as Toronto again reached the ALCS. He spent most of 2017 on the disabled list with leg and ankle injuries, and then missed all of last season following surgery on both heels.
The Yankees signed Tulowitzki in the off-season — with Toronto eating up most of his hefty contract — but he lasted just five games before going on the injured list, straining his left calf April 3.