The Toronto Blue Jays just announced that they have released shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. He’s now a free agent.
Tulowitzki, to whom the Jays still owe $38 million over the next two years ($20 million in 2019, $14 million in 2020 and a $4 million buyout of his 2021 option), has seen his once fantastic career derailed by injuries. Specifically bone spurs, surgery for which caused him to miss the entire 2018 season and play in only 66 games in 2017. The Jays releasing him suggests that he’s still not fully healed or, at the very least, that they do not believe he’ll ever regain the form that inspired them to acquire him from the Rockies back in 2015 in the first place.
But what a form that was. In parts of ten seasons with the Rockies, Tulo put up a line of .299/.371/.513 with 188 homers. He won two Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger Awards in Colorado, making the All-Star team five times. That performance inspired the Rockies to sign him to a 10 year, $157.75 million contract extension following the 2010 season. Once he came to the Jays, however, it all went to pot, with him only managing a line of .250/.313/.414 in three partial, injury plagued seasons.
It seems unlikely that anyone would take a chance on the now-34 year-old Tulowitzki, even at league minimum prices. If so, it is an unfortunate end to a once extraordinarily promising career.