The Colorado Rockies traded veteran shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night. In doing so, the team may have broken a promise to the five-time All-Star.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that Tulowitzki had no idea he was being traded until Rockies manager Walt Weiss pulled him from Monday night’s game in the ninth inning. That is worth noting because team owner Dick Monfort has apparently always had an agreement with Tulowitzki that he would not trade the 30-year-old without first receiving his blessing.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports adds that Tulowitzki had been assured he would not be traded to a team he didn’t want to play for, and it’s unclear how he will feel about playing on turf in Toronto. There have been some rumblings that the Rockies fulfilled Tulowitzki’s request to not be traded to the New York Mets.
Several Rockies players were reportedly “stunned” to learn that Tulowitzki had been dealt. More from Passan:
Fearful Tulowitzki requesting a trade publicly would make the Rockies look weak, the team asked him to play good soldier, which he obliged, according to club sources. The organization’s dysfunction, from the power struggles between former co-GMs Dan O’Dowd and Bill Geivett to a hands-on owner in Monfort whose public comments about players often rubbed them the wrong way, was all too evident, not just to Tulowitzki but the team’s young core of Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon, D.J. Lemahieu and Corey Dickerson.
The stunned silence of players early Tuesday morning, when word of the trade came down, spoke to the disappointment of losing Tulowitzki. As the Rockies stashed him in Weiss’ office to keep him from addressing a deal that early Tuesday remained unconfirmed by either team, the truth of Tulowitzki’s exit filtered into the clubhouse and left the players even more gobsmacked, according to sources.
It sounds like the deal with the Blue Jays came together very quickly. I suppose it’s possible that things really started to heat up during the game and there was no way management could inform Tulowitzki of what was going on.
You can read some analysis on the trade itself here.
Even if Tulowitzki did have an agreement with Monfort, things don’t always work out as planned — especially near the trade deadline.
