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Rockies Rumors: Troy Tulowitzki Will Not Be Traded To The Yankees

By Hayden Kane |

Maybe the Colorado Rockies will trade Troy Tulowitzki this winter, but if recent rumors are any indication, they will not trade their franchise shortstop to the New York Yankees.

This rumor isn’t going away, but anytime we can dump some cold water on it, we should embrace the opportunity.

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Until Tulowitzki is either wearing another uniform or those darn Yankees’ pinstripes, we are going to continue to be haunted by the grumblings that he is headed to New York. He loves Derek Jeter, he wears no. 2, the Yankees tend to get what they want, blah blah blah.

The interesting thing is that these rumors persist despite the fact that they completely lack substance. The Yankees don’t have the prospects and they don’t want the salary. The Rockies do not have a pressing need to trade Tulowitzki despite the false urgency that has been created the last couple off-seasons.

Other than Jeter’s retirement, the fit simply is not there for a trade with the Yankees for Troy Tulowitzki.

That continues to be true, and Andy Martino of the New York Daily News has a report that confirms the thinking that a trade sending Tulowitzki to the Yankees simply will not happen.

Although we have always seen Tulo-to-Yanks as a long shot, there are recent, strong indications that it will not happen, period.Tulowitzki’s elite abilities are obvious, but the Yanks are sending clear signals that they have no interest whatsoever in assuming the final six years and $114 million remaining on the shortstop’s contract. Already dealing with Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia (and to a lesser extent, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran), the team truly does not want to take on another expensive deal.

Here is what I like to say to scare Yankees’ fans: Troy Tulowitzki is a large, powerful infielder with over $100 million left on his contract who has a bad hip. Sound familiar?

As for that false urgency that has been created thanks to the perpetuation of the notion that the Rockies have no choice but to trade Tulowitzki right now, that is also relevant to Martino’s report. The Rockies’ front office is mostly content to sit and listen while planning to keep Tulo for 2015 and beyond. From Martino:

Further complicating the situation, rival officials who have spoken with the Rockies in the past two weeks have come away with the impression that Colorado will not trade Tulowitzki. We are approaching a level of dithering worthy of Hamlet here, and it is hard to say where this drama goes. But for now, rivals have the impression that Tulo is not available.

Maybe the Rockies need to tear things down and rebuild. Maybe they need to make their payroll less top heavy. But the fact of the matter is, the Rockies can afford to pay their best player $20 million for the 2015 season, injuries be damned, when he offers the elite upside that Tulowitzki does.

If Troy Tulowitzki plays 100 games in a hypothetical season that is still interrupted by injuries, he will be worth $20 million to the Rockies. The money is not a problem here, and so the decision to gamble that he stays healthy for another year is a reasonable one.

The Rockies do not have to trade Tulowitzki. That allows them to carefully vet trade offers and choose the best one if it is presented to them. The only way the Yankees would even be part of this conversation is if the Rockies felt that they had no other choice.

That is not the case, and that’s why Troy Tulowitzki will not replace Derek Jeter.

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