Why The Mets Dodged a Bullet Not Trading For Troy Tulowitzki

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          There have been two narratives to the Mets offseason. One of those two have been the anticipation towards Matt Harvey joining a very talented, as well as a young rotation headlined by the reigning National League Rookie of the Year in Jacob Degrom, and the steadily improving Zack Wheeler who happens to have electric stuff. The second narrative has been the chatter among Mets fans regarding Troy Tulowitzki. Troy Tulowitzki seems to be the most polarizing player among the Mets fanbase in years, and he isn’t even a Met at the moment of writing this. In this writers opinion, consider it to be a great thing the Mets have not traded for the man known as Tulo.

Photo Courtesy of espn.com

There certainly have been some valid points regarding why Tulowitzki should become a Met, such as the increased revenue he would be partially responsible for in the form of jersey and ticket sales (and with the way ticket sales have gone in recent years, it would be needed). Tulo would bring in financial gain, but remember, Jason Bay sold a lot of tickets and jerseys as a Met too. If Sandy Alderson and the Wilpons are in the business of making money over putting a winning ball club on the field, then they need to consider changing to a different type of business. Many will argue that Tulowitzki would indeed help the Mets gain more wins and put them toward the brink of playoff contention as evidenced by his 2014 5.5 bWAR (WAR according to the Baseball Reference website), and an average of a 6 bWAR in the years that he has played in at least 120 games. The problem with that last statement though is that 120 games seems to be more than what Tulowitzki is capable of playing through. His career average of games played per season is 106 games. In fact, the last time Tulowitzki managed to play over 140 games was in 2011. Even in what was considered to be a torrid 2014 in which Troy Tulowitzki was once again making his case for the National League MVP, injuries once again derailed his season. The injury that ended his season, a labrum tear in his hip that required surgery. This is an injury similar to the one that has ruined the career (playing, not the reputation) of Alex Rodriguez, and forced Carlos Delgado into retirement. Even if those names don't exactly spark a gasp, it is important to take into account how the muscles in the hips help propel athletic movement perhaps more importantly than any other part of the body. When the explosiveness in an athletes hips is taken away, a hitters bat speed and power will be sapped as well. Even if Tulo’s hip comes back to form, his reputation of being “injury prone” has become well known around baseball circles. The injuries he sustains are also more of strains, sprains, inflammations, contusions and tightness. Per Baseball Prospectus, Tulo has missed 209 games due to the above listed injuries since 2011. I could go on for days talking about other Tulowitzki injuries, but there are other reasons too why the Mets dodged a bullet on him. The other such reason is even if Colorado paid off 5 million of his contract annually, the players they have reportedly asked for is not worth the price for the injury prone shortstop.  

Noah Syndergaard delivering a pitch at the 2014 Futures Game. Courtesy of newsday.com

According to an article on Mets Blog, the Mets would have to expect Colorado to ask for Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Juan Lagares and Dillon Gee for Troy Tulowitzki and around 30-40 million dollars covered off of Tulowitzki’s deal. Even with the money Colorado could potentially cover in this deal, it is certainly not worth giving up two prospects who could play a part in what could be one of the majors best rotations by the end of next season, arguably the best defensive outfielder in baseball who can also swing the bat a decent bit, and a controllable, dependable back of the rotation starter who could probably be traded for a vital team need all on his own. The other variable to consider is that Wilmer Flores is a much better option at short than most think. That will likely be covered in a future article. I firmly believe the team should be aggressive and make moves to finally solve the puzzle that hasn’t been solved since 2006, I just believe Troy Tulowitzki is not the final piece of that puzzle. If the Mets brain trust believes he is though, they should be prepared for a few mere words ruining what the team has built up for years.