Today in Blue Jays History: Jays trade for Tulowitzki

Seven years ago today:

The Blue Jays traded for Troy Tulowitzki.

The deal was: Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins to the Rockies for Jose Reyes, Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro, and Jesus Tinoco.

It is one of those trades that worked at the time. Finally, we got to the playoffs. Troy hit .250/.313/.414 in 36 home runs in 238 games over three seasons for the Jays. After we released him, he signed with the Yankees and managed 13 at-bats before going on the DL and retiring.

I wonder how his time with the Jays would have been without the terrible injury he suffered when his ankle rolled, slipping off first base (also on this day, back in 2017). He was 32 at the time. He could have had a few more good seasons and maybe built the raw numbers to get him close to a Hall of Fame career.

When he was healthy, he was fun to watch. The sidearm throws from short were things of beauty.

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, and allowing 7 earned runs.

The players that went to the Rockies:

Reyes finished the season hitting .259/.291/.368 for the Rockies. Jose got suspended for the start of the 2016 season for violating the domestic violence policy. At the end of the suspension, the Rockies released him. He signed with the Mets, had 3 mediocre seasons, and was let go after the 2018 season.

Hoffman was the big piece going to Denver. But unfortunately, he hasn’t lived up to his prospect status. jeff spent parts of six seasons there, and they traded him to the Reds, where he is working out of the bullpen and doing an ok job. He has a 5.68 ERA in 134 games and 50 starts in his six seasons.

Castro didn’t do much for the Rockies, pitching in 24 games over two seasons with a 7.20 ERA. The Rockies traded him to the Orioles, and Miguel was traded to the Mets after three and a half seasons. They moved him on to the Yankees before this season. He’s been pretty good this year. He continues to be a hard thrower with little idea of the strike zone.

Since the trade, Tinoco has spent most of his time in the Rockies minor league system. He got into 24 games in 2019. Since then, he’s pitched for the Marlins, Rockies and now the Rangers. In parts of four seasons, he’s pitched 51.2 MLB innings.

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

It’s tough to say if the trade was a good thing or not. We needed to get rid of Reyes, and that was the trade available, and we did make the playoffs twice. Would we have without Tulo?

It seemed like the team needed to move on from Jose Reyes’ large contract, so the Jays picked up Tulo’s even larger contract. But pennants fly forever.

3 Years Ago

Bo Bichette was called up.

On the same day, the Jays traded Marcus Stroman to the Mets for Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson (who, along with Austin Martin, went to the Twins for Jose Berrios).

I don’t know if we would have been better off just keeping Marcus, but it seemed the team didn’t think they would be able to re-sign him. And, well, Stroman’s got a big personality. Maybe the team tired of it.

And 17 years ago.

The Jays play 18 innings to get a 2-1 win against the Angels.

Pete Walker got the win with 3 innings of shutout ball. Dave Bush started and went 8.1 allowing just one run. Also pitching:

• Scott Schoeneweis
• Justin Speir
• Vinne Chulk
• Jason Frasor
• Miguel Batista

The walk-off run was scored by Alex Rios, who Orlando Hudson drove in.

We had quite the lineup: