Months removed from the trade that sent him to Toronto, Troy Tulowitzki still doesn’t forgive the Colorado Rockies, and it doesn’t sound like he ever will.
“I’ll never talk to him, never talk to those people,’’ Tulowitzki told Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports. “You get lied to, straight to your face, you get upset. I believe in forgiveness, but at the same time, I don’t plan on being friendly with them, or anything like that.’’
And that wasn’t the end of it, either. Tulo made sure that he dug the knife in as deep as he could, letting the fans and organization know he was happier outside of Coors Field.
“I thought at one point in my career it would be neat to stay with one team,’’ Tulowitzki said. “But now that this has happened to me, and I get to play with all of these great ballplayers, I think there’s a reason why this happened.
“Hopefully, at the end of the day, we can do something special here, and win a World Series, and really, the picture will come together.’’
It’s no surprise that Tulo is angry with Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich. According to Nightengale, after being informed of the trade on July 27 in the visitor’s clubhouse at Wrigley Field, Tulo got into a shouting match with Bridich over the club’s handling of the trade. But apparently Tulo’s frustrations extend much further than Bridich.
He’s angry at the whole organization, and he’s letting his mouth run free:
“You look around here and there are some great players in this locker room. It’s different than in Colorado where I was leaned upon so heavily. Now, I’m just another guy. I enjoy that.
“The biggest difference is that I don’t feel like a teacher anymore. Over there, there was a lot of young guys. The young guys were scared to walk around. I was trying to teach these guys how to handle themselves, instead of just going out there and playing the game the right way, playing the game to win. Here, we got so many veterans, it makes everyone relax.
“I enjoy not getting all of those questions now.’’
He’s so angry, in fact, that he’s willing to trash the Rockies state-of-the-art spring training facility for being too nice.
“I like this place a lot better than Arizona,’’ Tulowitzki said of the Blue Jay’s dated facility. “That place was like a country club. Guys got comfortable because it was so nice. This place has a better feel. It reminds you of spring training. The way it’s supposed to be.’’
And as you can imagine, his former teammates and coaches in Denver weren’t all that excited with what Tulo had to say.
“I’ve told you that Tulo is my boy, and he still is my friend,” Arenado said Monday morning, via Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post. “But obviously, Tulo has some anger still. I don’t know if it’s the right way to be saying it in the media, but that’s his business and that’s how he’s handling it.
“But I don’t think it’s a country club here. I think it’s just a matter of guys putting their work in, and we do. I don’t agree with the ‘country club’ statement.”
They’ll all get an opportunity to settle their differences on the diamond this season when the Blue Jays come to Coors Field for a three-game series on June 27.
