Farewell, Troy Tulowitzki trade talks

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

In the past the rumors of a Troy Tulowitzki trade were vague; they would come from an opposing franchise that saw him as an ideal trade target, even if no actual trade was in the works. Or they would address, in a general sense, the fact that the Colorado Rockies might benefit from a package of young talent in exchange for getting out from under his contract.

This year a trade, while still a long shot, seemed like a more substantive prospect because we knew what it would look like. There was really only one team, the St. Louis Cardinals, who had the three prongs to make a deal for Tulo:

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

1. Motivation – they badly needed a shortstop
2. Money – they can afford his contract (though there was some talk the Rockies would have had to eat some money in a potential trade, which still seems nutso to me)
3. Prospects – they had the goods to make an offer of young prospects, including pitching, that would be darn near impossible for Colorado to refuse.

And so we were left to sweat it out and hope the Cardinals would find somebody else to play shortstop. This weekend they did exactly that:

That would be Jhonny Peralta, if you’ll forgive Nightengale’s spelling (but with the “h” coming first, it’s baffling from the start).

This is good news. Pending any unexpected and/or crazy developments, Troy Tulowitzki will be the starting shortstop and the centerpiece of the Rockies in 2014 and in the foreseeable future. That is how it should be, and it is a bonus that we are (hopefully) done with these rumblings on November 25th.