THURSDAY: Tulowitzki will miss the rest of the season, writes Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. He should be ready for spring training next year.
WEDNESDAY: The Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Nick Tepesch and cleared space on the 40-man roster by moving Troy Tulowitzki to the 60-day disabled list. Left-hander Matt Dermody was optioned to Triple-A to clear a spot on the active roster.
As Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith points out (via Twitter), Tulo’s initial DL placement came on July 29, so this move makes it extremely unlikely that the shortstop will return to the field in 2017. He’ll technically be eligible to return on Sept. 27, though there will be little in the way of incentive for the Jays to push Tulowitzki by that point.
Whether Tulo returns for the season’s final week or not, 2017 has been a severely disappointing campaign for the five-time All-Star. A strained hamstring cost him more than a month earlier this year, and ligament damage in his right ankle will now cost him at least two months. In the 66 games that he’s been healthy enough to take the field, Tulowitzki has slashed a sub-par .249/.300/.378 with seven homers through 266 plate appearances.
Getting Tulowitzki back to full health in 2018 will be imperative for the Jays, as he’s still owed $20MM in both 2018 and 2019 before earning $14MM in 2020 (plus a $4MM buyout on a 2021 club option). All indications are that despite lackluster results in 2017, the Jays’ aim is to contend in 2018, and a healthy Tulowitzki would go a long way toward that end. While Tulo hasn’t played at his former superstar level since 2013-14, he nonetheless played a well-above-average shortstop and swatted 24 homers in 2016, generating roughly three wins above replacement in the process.
As for Tepesch, the 28-year-old will make his Blue Jays debut as tonight’s starter. Toronto acquired the former Rangers hurler from the Twins in exchange for cash earlier this year, and he’s posted a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings with seven strikeouts against one walk for the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo. Tepesch held a fairly regular spot in the Texas rotation in 2013-14 but has seen only sparse big league action since. All told, he has a 4.69 ERA with 5.5 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in 224 2/3 big league innings.
Tulo? Should be called mr glass
Tulo is short for Tulowitzki. That’s his last name. Take the “GL” out of glass and it would be fitting for you, seeing as that’s what you sit on while complaining about Tulo.
Lol man, you can’t deny the guy gets hurt a lot. He wasn’t complaining, moreso stating a fact.
L
Tulo is short for Tulowitzki. That’s his last name. Take the “GL” out of glass and it would be fitting for you, seeing as that’s what you sit on while complaining about Tulo.
What, pray tell, do you sit on?
I don’t complain about people I don’t know, that do things I couldn’t in my wildest dreams, or that get hurt while giving their best.
Never complained about someone under qualified, unreliable, unable or overpaid to do a job u couldn’t do….yeah right. PRESIDENT OF YE OLE USA anyone? Oh well. At least POTUS isn’t still owed 60 million plus guaranteed.
Isn’t this the kind of comment that moderation is supposed to avoid? Not that I disagree with what he’s saying with the political remark, but isn’t that what is supposed to be avoided with moderation?
It probably should be moderated, but it’s not. But you can’t have it both ways. Now I don’t understand why people feel the need to bring politics into this.
Politics and sport, didn’t anyone ever tell you?
That’s celebs…
You literally, in the previous comment you posted, complained about someone you don’t know.
Me?
No. Old oak. Not sure why the replies tile the way they do.
Haha yeah it’s confusing
makes me wonder if he’ll ever be the player he was
Nope, doubtful.
Once his defense deteriorates, he’s gonna become the worst contract in baseball.
Votto owns that distinction.
Hi.
-Albert Pujols
Ahem?
– Pablo Sandoval
Over here!!
-Miguel Cabrera
Hello???
– Alex Gordon and anyone the Red Sox or Yankees sign
Ha the Angels paying Pujols to be a negative WAR player is awesome. Sandoval is worse though. Throw Josh Hamilton in the mix while you still can.
Hold my beer.
– Matt Cain
Lol Votto? Ok
Votto? The guy is 9 th in baseball in WAR this season. He’s been one of the ten best players in the league every year of his career.
Pujols is owed 124 million dollars over the next 4 seasons. He’s a well-below average player this season. There’s your answer.
??? In the words of Johnny Mac..YOU CAN’T be serious….
Didn’t votto just come off a month where he hit almost .400
Votto is actually a good player…
Votto is a great player. I would take him and his contract in a minute for my team [if I was running one].
joey votto looks like dean ambrose
Votto owns that distinction?? Huh?? Senior editor do you watch any baseball?
Joey Votto rakes, MVP candidate on winning team
Votto is a beast
Hard to say. There are LT deals that will turn out poorly down the road, but it’s hard to predict which ones.
Chris Davis feels left out
All long-term deals usually end up poorly. Players are paid for what they’ve done, not for future production. The way the system is set up most of a player’s prime years happen before he reaches free agency. Underpaid early, overpaid late.
Chris Davis will easily take that crown. Ryan Howard 2.0
Let’s not forget Rusney Castillo and the legend that is Mo Vaughn.
Mike Hampton, Barry Zito.
Hector Olivera
Prayers are with you Tulo , hope you recover quickly you were a monster in Colorado when I would go to Rockies games
Thoughts and prayers
Coors effect. He was never as good as his inflated stats.
Not true. His park adjusted stats were good
Well technically what he said is true since he is not as good everywhere else as he is in Coors, but his park adjusted stats were good anyways, just not as good
If the Rockies had only traded Cargo too they would be looking real smart right now
I mean the blue Jays didn’t give up a ton for him. They gave up Jose Reyes a bad starting pitcher and a guy who was and for the Rockies in his short stay there
Umm no. Jeff Hoffman is really good and still very young. Rox win that one hands down.
Jeff Hoffman bad? Wishful thinking young jays fan, hmm?
will Tulo be healthy next season!?!? I guess we’ll find out! but no, he won’t
I followed Nick when he was with the Rangers, he’s a good story, here’s wishing him all the best.
He grew up in Blue Springs, MO which is my hometown. Always have rooted for him but wish he would have gotten a chance with the Royals back when we had him on a minor league deal.
D-Rose of Baseball
Tulo can still be very good. He needs to move to third or first base to minimize the work on his body. He is a great athelete and great athletes can adjust to new postions and new batting stances. The key will be in his head, whether he will proactively adjust to another position, even another type of batting stance. His current batting stance changes the level of his eyes dramatically as he swings, it worked great for him when he was younger but as eye sight minutely diminishes with age, and with his batting stance, so will his contact rate. His average will plummet if he doesn’t adjust. Alex Rios did this kind of adjustment and got decent mileage out of the end of his career. Tulo can do it – if he wants too.
He can’t go to 3rd or first with Donaldson and Smoak there. And if you take away his glove at SS he’s not exactly a 3WAR player. But Crazier things have happened Ryan Zimmerman learned how to hit again this year.
I doubt Smoak is going to be a long-term block for Tulowitski, considering he’s probably one of the biggest regression candidates in the MLB right now.
Well last time I checked Justin smoak is under contract for next season and Troy tulowtizki isn’t going to play first as long as that’s the case. Smoak is hitting .300 w 31 hrs and a reasonable babip. So unless he starts striking out like he had been I highly doubt he’s not a solid first baseman.
Technically if we look at the Jays roster, Smoak, Morales, Pearce, Tulo, and Bautista are all best suited for 1st base. Jays are clogged with hitters with borderline defensive abilities. Time to make some changes.
Morales is best suited to never have a glove on but I get your point. 3/5 will be out of their contract after next season though.
Why? Smoak was always expected to be the player he is today
Not really. His babip is in line and he’s always been projected to be like this, he’s just catching up to his potential
Disagree, his best years are behind him, and he no longer has the confidence in himself.
If he returns ( next year), he will get eaten up!
No< Tulo won't get eaten up when he returns. He will have to adjust and can still be very good, not great, but good.
He’s been injured so many times and that really takes a toll. You can see how his numbers have regressed. Can he still be good? Sure. But I certainly would not be that he will be.
I hope Tepesch does well. But using this guy is like rearranging older slightly used deck chairs on the titanic. Is anyone fed of up watching this pathetic pitching corps of cast-offs and AAA callups and wounded warriors like: blistered Sanchez, a tired Estrada[although finally coming back nicely], Lucas Harrell, Mat Latos, Neil Ramirez[on the bench], Leonel Campos, Matt Dermoudy, Glenn Sparkman, Mike Bolsinger, Jeff Believeau, JP Howell, Casey Lawrence, Jason Grilli, Francisco Liriano etc etc. I feel like barfing when I read a list like this and the team executive thinks it can win? Hogwash. They won’t win now or ever. It is time to fire Atkins and find a Gillick type to run the Blue Jays.
If you recall on these very pages in spring training, it was predicted that this team couldn’t compete with the ptiching corps that it has and trades needed to be made to bring in top talent, not the likes of the list above. This bad season didn’t have to happen. The same will happen next year unless the pitching staff is drastically upgraded. The alternative is a total rebuild which is fine, just don’t tell the fans this team will compete for the sake of selling tickets. We have a long haul of mediocrity in front us folks unless the upper level mgmt philosophy changes or Atkins is fired.
Fyre adkans
The pitching will have to be signed because the jays don’t have the minor league talent to get an ace unless you move Vlad Jr and gut the rest of the system. But then still you don’t have much of a pen aside from Osuna
Toronto ranks 26th in runs scored and 27 in team batting average. Team era is 20th and baa is 17th. While not good, their pitching has been better than their batting this season.
You may be right and they need to improve their pitching, but statistically speaking they need to improve their offense more. If your looking for Atkins position, I wouldn’t quit your day job just yet.
Adding a couple more hitters won’t change a whole lineup bascially in decline,. That won’t cause them to win. What win help them win is moving from the lower ranks in pitching to the top. The old adage still is true, pitching and defence wins, not hitting. Any GM knows this. Can I have that GM job now? lol.
That’s odd. A simple Google search reveals that generally teams who had above average offense with average pitching win more often than teams with above average pitching and average batting. Boston in 13 had the best offense with middle of the pack pitching. KC in 15 had a top 5 offense and about 12th ranked defense/pitching. I think in order to win you need to out score your opponent, can’t do that without hitting. 100 times out of 100 you won’t win by scoring 0 runs.
How many times have the Jays scored zero runs this year? Not many, only 4.. It is not about stats, it is about one thing, winning games. A good pitcher will beat a good hitter 7 out of every 10 times. That is how winning happens. It’s simple and baseball people know this and that is why in the long run and mostly in a long series, good pitching will always beat good hitting.
I proved that incorrect using stats, not just opinion. With average hitting the Jays would be probably 5 wins better. Which would put them in a wild card position. And once you make the playoffs anything can happen.
And this is one of the arguments that I love sitting back and watching. Some teams win with offense, some win with pitching, defense, speed, a combination, even luck or getting got at the right time. But more often the. Not it’s a combination of more than one. Heck, the Royals only beat the A’s in that WC game because of good scouting on Lester and some clutch/luck. But there is more than one way to win games.
Exacrly. It doesnt take only a great pitching staff or defensive play behind the SP, but a mutual combination of offense, defense, and pitching. Your SP could throw 10 no hit innings and lose it on a error by a bad rf play in the 11th and you lose. Have a BAA of .072 and ERA of 1.32 and still have a losing season. And an offence can average a .300 BA and score 10 a game but still go winless if their pitchers can’t stop the other team from putting more runs across the plate.
My simple acknowledgement of the OP was that the Jays have bigger issues right now than their SP as he targeted in his first post.
Baseball is a team sport and the objective is to score more runs than your opponent. It takes 2 sides to flip that coin. Can’t score more runs than them if you can’t score any nor if you can’t prevent them.
I say he moves to 3rd and they let donaldson walk. They like Goins glove at short
I’ve always liked goins myself and he’s a very underated hitter. If he gets 500 plate appearances a year I could see him getting 20 plus homers a year. I hope they give him a fair chance.
Ryan goins? Lol he’d be one of the worst hitters in the league if he played full time
Ryan Goins is as bad of a hitter as Josh Thole is, I guess propaganda from Rogers constantly telling you how good he is works on some people.
That is nonsense. When Goins plays he produces. Thole only had 40 RBi’s once in his entire career. Ryan has done it twice an in this shortened season becuase he is filling in for Tullo. Goins is good for 55 rbis. Elite glove, 55 Rbis, I’d take that every time but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t look around for an offensive upgrade. It would be tough to upgrade his glove though.
Please retire. This is beyond sad.
Donaldson is next ?
Suck all that money up before you quit tulo
Tulo has done nothing since coming to Toronto. Not sure what Jays fans see in this guy, even less certain how the Jays intend to compete next year. Just more good ol’ Blue Jays mediocrity.
The odd thing is, the tulo trade was probably worth it for us. We very likely don’t make the playoffs with reyes’ gaffes in the field over the past two years, and the team immediately took off after acquiring him.
They probably can compete next year, they just got to make the right moves. If they get healthy years out of Sanchez and Happ, they’d again have one of the best rotations with stroman. The divisions not that great. The Yankees seem to be overachieving this year and the Red Sox have looked very human at times
Tulo can go suck an egg
Pretty sad all Toronto ever got out of Tulowitzki was a league average hitter with a really good glove. The guy was coming off a 5.2WAR half season where he put up a 170WRC+ in 2014 before that hip injury. Seems the Rockies accurately assessed the guy didn’t look right in 2015 and traded him before his Coors spell of being able to hit started to wear off.
It’d be nice if Tulowitzki just retired because if aging trends continue, he’s going to be sub replacement level next season making 20M a year. If he can bounce back in his mid 30’s, hats off to him but it’s really unlikely at this point.
He was one of my favorite players before becoming a Jay, now he’s one of my least favorite to watch.