TORONTO – The shock of a blindside trade from the only big-league franchise he’s ever known to a team no one knew was pursuing him is ebbing for Troy Tulowitzki. He checked into the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, started meeting his new teammates, and began adapting to the all-encompassing change in his life now that he’s no longer with the Colorado Rockies.
"The last couple of days have been crazy for me to say the least," the five-time all-star said during his introductory news conference. "When you sign a 10-year deal you think you’re going to be with that team for the long haul. To be with a different organization now is shocking but at the same time, I’m looking forward to it because I see a winning team, a winning culture and I know they haven’t won a World Series here in a while, so to be a part of something like that would be memorable. That’s what you play this game for, to win, there’s a great possibility that can happen here very soon."
The possibility of the post-season, even with the hurdles in place for the Blue Jays at the moment, is rejuvenating for a relentless competitor like Tulowitzki. Since the Rockies posted a third-place finish in 2010 at 83-79, they’ve gone 320-426 heading into Wednesday night’s action, which is a whole lot of losing to endure. In each of those seasons, even faint dreams of the playoffs were extinguished before summer, and that’s a tough way for a superstar to spend his peak years.
Sitting eight games back of the New York Yankees in the AL East and three back of the Minnesota Twins for the second wild card at start of Wednesday’s play is a massive improvement from where he’s been.
"More than anything when you wake up you’re excited to come to the ball field," said Tulowitzki. "Sometimes when you’re out of it with a month left it’s tough to get up and find something to play for other than personal pride, to keep that good image you have up. Now to wake up and know these games are very meaningful, every time you win a series it means something in the standings, that will bring me back to some of my younger days, when you wake up and all you were worried about was winning. When you’re worried about winning and playing the game the right way, usually you play better yourself."
The 30-year-old certainly looked refreshed on the field as he transitioned from purple to blue with a bang – a two-run homer that opened the scoring, two doubles and some slick work in the field during an 8-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Fans cheered as he took the field during warm-ups, stood and clapped before his first at-bat and alternated chants for him between "Tu-Lo, Tu-Lo," "Let’s go Tu-Lo," and "Tu-Lo-Witz-Ki."
They’ll settle on one, this relationship’s just started.
Tulowitzki, for his part, is looking forward to that part. For the better part of two years he’s lived with rumours about his future as the stuck-in-the-mud Rockies tried to settle on a path forward. As much as he tried to tune it out, it was everywhere, hanging over the team as big-picture issue in need of resolution.
That resolution came at long last Monday night, when he was pulled from a game in Chicago, unsure what was going on. The Rockies had promised to give him a heads up if there was some potential for a deal. They didn’t when things started to heat up with the Blue Jays, ending with him and LaTroy Hawkins bound for Toronto in exchange for Jose Reyes, Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro and Jesus Tinoco.
"That’s why it ended a little bittersweet for myself, because of the way it was handled," he said of parting with the team that selected him seventh overall in 2005. "Hopefully it makes me a better person and a better player because of that."
As frustrating as that part of it was, having his future settled, he feels, "will be huge."
"It wasn’t easy going to the ballpark, dropping games, not having quite the pitching that some of these other teams had and dealing with the rumours, constantly answering questions, having to say I’m just here to play baseball," he added. "At the same time you are thinking about it because it’s your family, it’s your livelihood and something you care deeply about. It got annoying at times, hopefully now that it’s put to bed, it helps me out there on the field."
Tulowitzki certainly helped the Blue Jays out on the field Wednesday, his two-run homer travelling 460 feet into the second deck in left-centre to open the scoring in third, doubling and scoring on a Jose Bautista single for a 3-0 lead in the fifth and doubling home a run and scoring another in a three-run sixth that blew things open. Defensively, he ranged into the hole a couple of times to start pretty fielder’s choices.
"He’s stepping into a much better position right now (in the standings) and we’re sitting on that spot right now where we can go either way," said manager John Gibbons. "We’ve been talking about it for a while now we need to make a move as far as wins and losses, that’s just the reality of it, but he’s a guy that comes in and maybe gives us a big jolt. I don’t think you can come in and expect him to save the day, he’s in new surroundings, you never know how long it takes him to get comfortable, but he’s a pretty damn good player, and he’s really going to help us."
In a spectacular debut, he did just that.