Today in Blue Jays History: Jays trade for Tulowitzki

Three years ago today, the Blue Jays traded for Troy Tulowitzki.

The deal was: Troy Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins for LaTroy Hawkins Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro and Jesus Tinoco.

It is one of those trades that worked at the time. We made it to the playoffs two years in a row, but now we are paying a lot of money for a shortstop who hasn’t played this year and has 2 more years on his contract.

He’s been on the DL all of this season and I’m not expecting him back. It’s been so long since he’s played that I didn’t remember if it was a z or an s in his name. I don’t know what his role would be next year. I’m personally thinking they might as well release him and take the beating on the contract.

In the three years since the trade Troy has played 238 games. He’s hit .250/.313/.414 and his defense hasn’t been great.

LaTroy Hawkins pitched in 18 games for the Jays, in 2015 and retired after the season. He had a 2.76 ERA in 16.1 innings. He didn’t have a good time in the playoffs, pitching in 3 games, 1.2 innings, allowing 7 earned runs.

The players that went to the Rockies:

Jose Reyes finished the season hitting .259/.291/.368 for the Rockies. He was suspended for the start of the 2016 season, for ‘violating the domestic violence policy’ and, at the end of the suspension he was released. Since then he’s been with the Mets, hitting .240/.307/.392 in 280 games.

Hoffman was the big piece going to Denver. He hasn’t lived up to his prospect status yet. In the majors he has a 6-9 record and a 5.88 ERA in 37 games 23 starts.

Castro didn’t do much for the Rockies. He pitched in 24 games, over two seasons, with a 7.20 ERA. He was traded to the Orioles and has been pretty good there.

Tinoco is pitching for the Rockies Double A team. He has a 5.43 ERA in 19 starts.

At the time we liked the trade. Our poll was 75% liked it. 18% neutral and 7% hate it.

Looking back, it’s tough to say if the trade was a good thing or not. We really needed to get rid of Reyes and that was the trade available. We did make the playoffs twice. Would we have without Tulo? I don’t know.