The Rockies have signed Troy Tulowitzki to a seven-year, $134 million extension that will carry him through the 2020 season.
Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post writes,
Tulowitzki, 26, talked privately in October about wanting to remain a Rockie for the rest of his career. Since his rookie year in 2007, Tulowitzki has emerged as a team leader. The Rockies have reached the playoffs in two of his first four full seasons. Tulowitzki is coming off his best year. Despite missing 33 games with a broken bone in his left wrist, the shortstop hit .315 with 27 home runs and 95 RBIs. He won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.
He also finished fifth in the National League MVP voting for the second consecutive year, in large part due to his numbers in September, when he clubbed 15 home runs and drove in 40 runs. The only major-leaguer to have a better September was Babe Ruth in 1927.
The Rockies have also re-signed Jorge De La Rosa to a three-year contract worth between $32 million and $33 million, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
De La Rosa is represented by Paul Cohen and Bobby Barad, the same agents that handle Tulowitzki. Obviously a huge day for the Colorado Rockies they lock up their best player for ten years, and hang onto one of their most reliable starters.
With De La Rosa now a Rockie again, and Ted Lilly, Hiroki Kuroda, Javier Vazquez, Jon Garland and Jake Westbrook also off the table, there’s not much left out there as far as healthy pitchers go.
Most of what’s left are pitchers who pose some kind of risk or are still dealing with arm injuries.
Finally, Anthony DiComo cautions Mets fans not to expect much in the way of player signings at the Winter Meetings next week. He quotes Sandy Alderson who said,
“I’ve tried to be clear from the outset that we are not going to be big players in the free-agent market this year,” Alderson said last Tuesday. “Our goal is to be players every year. We have a little less flexibility this time around. The free-agent market is certainly something we’re keeping our eye on. The free-agent market extends through January, so we’ve got a lot of time to go. We’ll see where we are at the end of that time frame.”
As DiComo articulates, there isn’t much flexibility as far as making moves “due in large part to the mistakes of offseasons past”. The Mets may have as little as $5 million to $10 million to spend on players this winter, which would put their payroll at around $135 million — same as last year.
