Yankees Sign Troy Tulowitzki
In a move that seemed to come out of nowhere (although Frankie Mandile of SSTN suggested the move weeks ago- “Look No Further than Troy Tulowitzki”) late yesterday evening, the Yankees signed former All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
According to reports, the Yankees were among many teams that attended a Tulowitzki workout on December 18. It has also been reported that Tulowitzki does not want to be a utility player and prefers to play one position leading many to speculate that Troy Tulowitzki is now lined up to be the Yankees’ everyday shortstop while Didi Gregorius recovers following Tommy John surgery.
Since Tulowitzki was released from the Blue Jays last month, the Yankees were able to pick him up for the pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary. According to River Ave Blues, this amounts to just $555,000.
The big concern here is that while Tulowitzki is a talented player, his career has been marred by injuries. While he was once an elite player, there are questions as to how much injuries have slowed him down. Tulowitzki did not appear in the Majors in 2018 and was only able to play in 66 games in 2017. Also 2019 will be Tulowitzki’s age 34 season, an age, even in the best of circumstances where players, especially shortstops, lose range and effectiveness.
There are a host of new questions that this move now asks. To begin:
-Are the Yankees still interested in signing Manny Machado?
-If Tulowitzki is the shortstop, and the Yankees sign him, where would Machado play? Third base?
-What would a Machado signing mean for Miguel Andujar?
Stay tuned, the winter just got a lot more interesting!
