Blue Jays on The Ballot: Troy Tulowitzki
The 2025 Hall of Fame Ballot was released last month and three former Blue Jays are making their debut appearance. While none of them are expected to garner much support, let's look back at their time with the club.
Today's player: Troy Tulowitzki
When Troy Tulowitzki arrived in Toronto, it was a very big deal. Coming over in a trade with pitcher LaTroy Hawkins that saw popular shortstop Jose Reyes go the other way - along with former 1st found pick Jeff Hoffman, prospect Jesus Tinoco, and fireballer Miguel Castro - just days before the trading deadline, Tulo was the last missing piece for the Blue Jays - 50-51 when he came over - who ended up winning the division and breaking their 22 year old playoff drought.
His career in Toronto started with a bang too. In his very first game, Tulo went 3-5 with a HR and two doubles. Oddly enough, that was the highlight most Jays fans remember, as his health slowly declined in the following seasons. He did manage to get himself ejected in game three of the ALCS however, becoming the first player to be thrown out of a playoff game since Dwight Gooden in 1998.
2016 saw Tulowitzki hit his 200th career home run, and though he limped to a .254. avg, he did swat 24 HRs to go along with his 79 RBIs.
That was the beginning of the end for Tulo. In 2017 he appeared in just 66 games with seven home runs, before missing 2018 entirely. He was released by the Blue Jays after the season.
He signed on with the New York Yankees to begin 2019 but injured his left calf just five games into the season. After being transferred to the 60 day disabled list, Tulowtizki announced his retirement on July 25 of that year, right before the season's trading deadline.
Like so many players before and after him, Troy Tulowitzki was beaten down by injuries to a point where his body couldn't recover. It's shame really because for about three years, he was considered the best short stop in the game. This is evidenced by his five All-Star appearances and his back-to-back Gold Glove Awards in 2010 and 2011, years that also won a Silver Slugger Award.
Considering his injury history, the fact that Tulo was still able to be put together a seven year Peak WAR of 40.2 (the average HOF SS is 43.2), and have similarity scores to players such as Buster Posey, Xander Bogaerts, Roy Campanella, and Elston Howard is impressive.
His player profile was often compared - and relatively similar - to one of his contemporaries and borderline hall of fame candidate: Chase Utley. While Tulo's numerous prevented him from staying the course and keeping pace with Utley, both in terms of raw numbers and longevity. I'm not saying that Tulo was as good as Utley, but if he was healthy he could have been.
For comparison, Utley had 259 HRs to Tulo's 225, but Utley also played in nearly 700 more games. Tulowitzki had a higher average, OBP, SLG, and OPS, while essentially having the same OPS+. Utley also never won a Gold Glove. While Tulo falls short in many numbers, his peak should be discounted.
Chase Utely received a little over 28% in his first year on the ballot in 2024. While Troy Tulowitzki will struggle to get enough votes necessary to survive past this year, he was one of those that was better than you thought they were and had he managed to stay healthy and play a few more years, we could be having a very different conversation about his Hall of Fame chances.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 3 | 124 ANSWERS Blue Jays on The Ballot: Troy Tulowitzki How will Troy Tulowitzki fare on this year's Hall of Fame Ballot? | ||
| 5% or more | 43 | 34.7 % |
| Fall off after one year | 60 | 48.4 % |
| Get elected | 21 | 16.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
