It has now been over two years since Troy Tulowitzki announced his retirement from his playing days, and Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post recently caught up with the former superstar and discussed various topics, including how he’s been making use of his post-playing time.
Tulo retired at a relatively young age for a player of his caliber, as he was just 34 at the time. However, it wasn’t his heart or his soul that took him off the field. “I won’t say that I wanted to retire at that point because I still loved playing the game,” he told Saunders. “Unfortunately, my body didn’t let me keep playing.”
This isn’t terribly surprising to hear, as baseball fans could see the toll injuries were taking on him as his career progressed. After playing over 100 games for five straight seasons from 2007-11, he was limited to 47 games in 2012 and just 91 in 2014. He played two nearly full seasons in 2015 and 2016, but then just 66 games in 2017 before missing the 2018 season entirely. He played five games for the Yanks in 2019 before deciding to hang up his spikes.
Despite the frustrating injuries, Tulowitzki has maintained his passion for the game and is now channeling it into coaching. “The day I announced my retirement, I had already decided I wanted to get started coaching at a major D-I school," Tulowitzki said. "Because of all the work that I put in, and how focused I was on my craft, I made myself really good. I know how I got there, and that’s why I’ve always thought coaching was for me.”
Since his retirement, Tulowitzki has been been pursuing his coaching desires, spending time working with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team and Athlete Development Program and working as a volunteer assistant coach for the University of Texas.
As noted by Saunders, Tulowitzki became a mentor figure at a young age during his time with the Rockies, making the transition to coaching a natural one. “My favorite part is developing the young kids and showing them the ins and outs of the game,” Tulo says.
Does that mean he could return to the big leagues someday? Saunders says that Tulowitzki “has had nibbles from major league teams about possible coaching or working in the front office,” but that Tulowitzki and his wife are busy raising their seven-year-old son, meaning the current role with the University of Texas aligns well with his parenting duties. But he seems open-minded about whatever the future has in store for him, saying, “I just look at it like I did as a player. You just do your job every day and then if you have an opportunity that you like, then you think about it.”
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