I’ll spare you the “I really thought the Blue Jays would go after pitching” speech, but wow, what a deal this is, especially from a daily fantasy perspective.
Swapping jerseys are two of the most dynamic shortstops in baseball – Jose Reyes to Colorado and Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto.
Tulowitzki has been arguably the best hitter on the trade market for a long time, and any discussion always returns to the apprehension around his home/road splits.
Those are Tulo’s career splits, but the past three seasons have been even more drastic (.345/.437/.609 home vs .276/.359/.489 road).
The numbers provide reasonable concern, but the inevitable move couldn’t have been to a better destination. Tulo will join the most potent offense in baseball and form a core already made up of Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.
The Blue Jays’ offense hasn’t struggled, but their 9-11 record in July may have prompted this surprise blockbuster deal. The reason for their recent tailspin may simply be because they’re feeling homesick. This season, Toronto is 28-19 at the Rogers Centre, compared to 22-31 on the road.
Let’s check out the Toronto’s schedule broken down by month and location:
The schedule has been unkind to Toronto in the month of July with just five home games to this point. The Jays will wrap-up the month with four games at the Rogers Centre to kick-off a 10-game homestand.
In addition to the favorable upcoming schedule, all indications point to the Rogers Centre as a very friendly venue for right-handed hitters.
Here is a look at the righty vs lefty splits at the Rogers Centre:
And here are the home/road splits for Toronto’s right-handed bats:
Even more reason for optimism. Now also consider that Tulo is batting .324 over his 67 career games indoors and that sound you hear is his stock soaring off the charts.
No frequent investors of Tulowitzki wanted to see him depart from Coors Field, but we may have actually hit the jackpot here.
While there’s no doubt that Tulo excelled at Coors, his production also came with a premium price tag ($5,300 average cost at home on DraftKings). With 55% of Toronto’s remaining schedule played at home, Tulowitzki appears to be in store for big things down the stretch.
