Despite beginning his tenure with the Yankees with a bang, the rest of Spring Training is nothing to write home about for Troy Tulowitzki. Why Aaron Boone isn’t worried about the former all-star infielder.
Newly acquired by the New York Yankees, Troy Tulowitzki‘s first at-bat this Spring generated a ton of buzz. He was facing off against his former team, the Toronto Blue Jays, who just months prior flat out gave up on him.
After taking the first pitch for a strike, Tulo drove the next pitch, a 93 MPH fastball from Marcus Stroman into the right-field seats. While trotting the bases, Tulo’s reaction was akin to that of a player who just led his team to a meaningful victory in October.
Tulowitzki, one would have to imagine, was sending a message to the team those chose to eat the remaining $38M of his salary, that he is far from finished.
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Once a perennial all-star, the 34-year-old has been plagued by injuries since 2010. In fact, Tulo has failed to play in more than 131 games four out of the last nine seasons and missed all of 2018.
The laundry list of injuries Tulo has experienced is almost impossible to believe. He’s fractured his left wrist, strained his groin muscle, fractured a rib, had hip surgery, strained his quad and hamstring, sprained his ankles, and had heel surgery.
It’s tough to imagine how the guy is still standing.
Now, after that hair raising moment against the Blue Jays in a Spring Training game, Tulo has failed to impress. In seven Spring Training games, he’s gone 3-17 and struck out 9x. He’s only been able to put together a meek .176 BA and .211 OBP.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone isn’t worried, however, saying that he’s “seeing enough encouraging things out of him.”
That’s far from a vote of confidence. Boone followed that comment by saying that “hopefully” Tulowitzki is on the “upswing”.
Hopefully, he is.