Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the New York Yankees have agreed to a deal with five-time All-Star Troy Tulowitzki, pending a physical.
The former Rockies star shortstop was once on a Hall of Fame trajectory until injuries derailed his career. He hasn’t been the same type of player since the Rockies traded him to the Blue Jays in 2015, hitting an average .250/.313/.414 in his Blue Jays career, and he didn’t play a single game in 2018.
The deal is expected to be for the league minimum, with the Blue Jays paying the remainder of $20 million salary.
Passan also noted that Tulowitzki is going to be the Yankees’ shortstop while Didi Gregorius is out recovering from Tommy John surgery. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Yankees won’t sign superstar Manny Machado, as this is a very low-risk deal because the Blue Jays are still paying the majority of Tulowitzki’s salary.
Tulowitzki is 34 and appears to be falling into the decline phase of his once-promising career, but there is some degree of upside if he’s able to stay healthy. And at the league minimum, the Yankees found the deal too hard to pass up. If this experiment turns out to be a failure, it would not be a problem for them as they can simply release him without any major financial concerns.
It will be interesting to see if the former star can regain some of his previous form.
