Troy Trevor Tulowitzki (born October 10, 1984), nicknamed "Tulo", is an American professional baseball coach and former shortstop who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Colorado Rockies. He also played for the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Tulowitzki is currently an assistant baseball coach for the Texas Longhorns.
After playing college baseball for California State University, Long Beach, the Rockies selected Tulowitzki with the seventh overall selection of the 2005 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut the following year. Tulowitzki is a five-time MLB All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner. The Rockies traded him to the Blue Jays in 2015. Tulowitzki missed most of the 2017 season and all of the 2018 season with injuries, and the Blue Jays released him after the 2018 season. In 2019, he signed with the Yankees, playing the first five games of the season before being sidelined with a calf strain; after experiencing setbacks, he announced his retirement from baseball in late July.
Tulowitzki's arm, range and instincts at shortstop were highly regarded. His size, ability and leadership skills garnered him comparisons to Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter. He had a reputation for being an injury-prone player, having played over 140 games in a season only three times and missing at least 30 games in several seasons due to various ailments.
He was inducted to the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.
Tulowitzki was born in Santa Clara, California. He graduated from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California. He earned four varsity letters in baseball and two in basketball. He was twice named second team All-State in baseball, and was a three-time team most valuable player (MVP). As a junior, Tulowitzki had a batting average of .536. He also had a 15–1 win–loss record as a pitcher. In his senior year, he batted .519 with six home runs. In basketball, Tulowitzki won league MVP, and was second team All-State and team MVP, averaging 22.6 points per game during his senior year. He was named Fremont High Athlete of the Year in 2002.
After high school, Tulowitzki enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, where he played college baseball for the Long Beach State Dirtbags for three seasons. Tulowitzki had a .962 career fielding percentage. Offensively, in 155 career games, he had a batting average of .310, with 20 home runs, 117 runs batted in (RBIs), 37 doubles, and a .491 slugging percentage. He also accumulated 31 multi-hit games in his collegiate career. Baseball America rated him as having the top arm and as the best defensive shortstop in the Big West Conference. Tulowitzki was a two-time All-Big West selection (second team in 2003 and first team in 2004) and a two-time All-Regional Tournament selection, earning Most Outstanding Player (MOP) honors in 2004. In 2004, he was selected for the United States collegiate national team and helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the World University Baseball Championship.
The Colorado Rockies chose Tulowitzki with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft. He received a $2.3 million signing bonus from the Rockies. He made his professional debut with the Modesto Nuts of the Class A-Advanced California League in 2005, and batted .266 in 22 games. In 2006, Tulowitzki played for the Tulsa Drillers of the Class AA Texas League. He had a .291 batting average, 13 home runs, and 61 RBIs in 104 games. Though he had a knee injury in June, he appeared in the 2006 All-Star Futures Game.
The Rockies promoted Tulowitzki to the major leagues on August 30, 2006. He made his major league debut that day against the New York Mets. He had four at-bats and went hitless with three strikeouts. Tulowitzki made it to the big leagues after playing just 126 minor league games. He collected his first Major League hit, an infield single off Óliver Pérez of the Mets, on August 31. Tulowitzki hit his first MLB home run on September 4, off Woody Williams of the San Diego Padres, in a 7–5 loss. He posted a .240 batting average with one home run and six RBIs in 25 games during the 2006 season.
Tulowitzki entered spring training prior to the 2007 season competing with incumbent Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes for the starting role. After a spring that saw Tulowitzki win the team's spring training MVP award, along with Barmes struggling offensively, Tulowitzki began the season as the Rockies' starting shortstop. On April 29, 2007, Tulowitzki turned the 13th unassisted triple play in MLB history, during a 9–7 home victory at Coors Field over the Atlanta Braves.
As a rookie, Tulowitzki established himself as a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop. He led all MLB shortstops in fielding percentage (.987), putouts (262), total chances (834), assists (561), and double plays turned (114; two more than Jack Wilson, in 233 more innings). He also ranked first in range factor (5.39) and second in zone rating (.866). Tulowitzki's .987 fielding percentage set an MLB single-season record by a rookie shortstop. He was also a major contributor in the Rockies' MLB-record .98925 fielding percentage for one season. Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins won the Gold Glove Award, despite the fact that Tulowitzki had a better fielding percentage (.987 to .985), zone rating, and range factor, and more total chances, putouts, and assists, and turned four more double plays in 66+1⁄3 fewer innings, than Rollins. They each had 11 errors, but Tulowitzki's came on 834 total chances, compared to Rollins' 717. Tulowitzki did, however, win the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop, which is awarded to the shortstop who a panel of national sports writers, scouts, and sports radio talk show hosts view as the best defensive shortstop in Major League Baseball.
Tulowitzki was named the NL Rookie of the Month for August. On September 10, 2007, Tulowitzki hit his 20th home run of the season, which set the record for most home runs in a single season by a National League rookie shortstop. The previous record was 19, held by Ernie Banks. Tulowitzki hit his first career grand slam on September 29, 2007, in an 11–1 home win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, off of Dustin Nippert. He ended with 24 home runs on the season.
In the 2007 season, Tulowitzki ranked first among NL rookies in at bats (609), plate appearances (678), games (155), hits (177), doubles (33), runs (104), total bases (292), walks (57) and RBIs (99; two ahead of Ryan Braun, in 158 more at bats than Braun). Tulowitzki's 99 RBIs led all National League shortstops (he was three short of a tie for the MLB lead, held by Detroit Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillén). He set an MLB single-season record in RBIs for a rookie shortstop. He finished second behind Braun in OBP (.359). He was third behind Braun and Hunter Pence in batting average (.291), slugging percentage (.479), OPS (.838) and triples (5). Tulowitzki was also third behind Braun and Chris Young in home runs (24) and extra base hits (62), and tied for ninth in stolen bases (7).
Tulowitzki tied Young, Rajai Davis and Norris Hopper for the lead among all NL rookies in caught stealing (6), was second to Carlos Ruiz in grounding into double plays (14, which was one more — with 158 more at bats — than third place Braun) and second behind Young in strikeouts (130; leading all NL shortstops). However, Tulowitzki had the third lowest strikeout ratio (21.3%) out of all rookies with at least 400 at-bats, behind Kevin Kouzmanoff (19.4%) and Pence (20.8%). He batted .320 with a .554 slugging percentage and 15 home runs at mile-high Coors Field, but hit only .256 with a .393 slugging percentage and nine home runs in away games. However, one of the reasons for any substantial differences in home and road splits for Rockies batters is that they have to make adjustments in how they see pitches away from Coors Field — particularly breaking balls, such as sliders and curveballs — since those pitches act differently at Coors Field than on the road.