Often-injured Rockies superstar Troy Tulowitzki received even more bad news today when he was informed that he would require season-ending hip surgery. Tulowitzki’s surgery will be the result of a hip injury he sustained on July 19th, when he pulled up lame running out a ground ball in Pittsburgh.
Troy Tulowitzki to Have Season-Ending Surgery
Tulowitzki is undoubtedly a superstar player, but has seen his playing time severely cut short over the course of his career by countless injuries. Before sustaining his injury this season, Tulowitzki was playing at MVP level. In 375 plate appearances, he was hitting .340/.432/.640, with 21 home runs. That was good for a 173 wRC+, which means his offense was 73 points better than the league average. Tulowitzki also played a stellar shortstop, which when combined with his incredible bat made him worth 5.1 fWAR in just over about a half-season’s worth of plate appearances.
The blow, while grievous, will barely affect a Rockies squad that’s already in the midst of a lost season. Despite being one of the better offensive clubs, a combination of countless injuries and awful pitching has lead the Rockies to own easily the worst record in the National League, a 46-74 mark. Colorado is also currently without their other superstar, outfielder Carlos Gonzalez.
Interestingly enough, Tulowitzki has only played in at least 150 games in a season twice. Both times, the Rockies made the playoffs (credit to Grantland’s Jonah Keri for that factoid). This is of course not to say that Tulowitzki could have singlehandedly saved Colorado’s season, far from it. Yet it’s incredibly disappointing that the baseball world continues to be robbed of one of its best players. There had been speculation that he could be traded in the offseason as Colorado looks to rebuild, and he surely would have brought a king’s ransom of talent in return.
Colorado owes Tulowitzki quite a bit of money through the remainder of his contract as well. Through the 2020 season he’s guaranteed $118 million, which is quite a bit for a player that often finds himself on the disabled list. There’s no word yet what the surgery means for his 2015 campaign.
(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
For more on sports injuries, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
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