Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar’s balancing act: Baseball, family and budding stardom

Sunday, June. 23, 2024

Ezequiel Tovar had some rare time to relax, but that didn’t make him particularly happy.

“I like to play, I like to work,” the Rockies shortstop said from the dugout a couple of hours before Thursday’s game against the Dodgers at Coors Field.

For just the second time in 75 games, Tovar was not in the starting lineup.

“Just a traditional day off, day game after a night game,” manager Bud Black explained. “I thought ‘Tovie’ could use a break.”

Tovar appreciated the gesture, but he wanted to be on the diamond, robbing the Dodgers of would-be base hits, driving baseballs into the gap, making fans stand up and take notice.

For Tovar, work and play are synonymous. It’s part of a remarkable balancing act Tovar is pulling off at the tender age of 22.

He and his wife, Laura, have a son, Luciano, who had his first birthday on Tuesday. In March, Tovar signed a seven-year, $63.5 million contract that could keep him in a Rockies uniform through 2030. The deal includes a club option in 2031 that would boost the contract’s total value to $84 million.

That contract is just another indication Tovar, from Maracay, Venezuela, has become the franchise’s new and future face. He has the intangibles to handle it.

“He’s 22 years old and he acts like he’s 38,” said veteran catcher Elias Diaz, 33, who’s made it his mission to lighten Tovar up. “I find ways to make him laugh. He needs it sometimes.

“But he knows what he wants, and he knows where he’s going. He already knows how to be a professional.”

Added 34-year-old backup catcher Jacob Stallings, “He’s Steady Eddie.”

Tovar’s attitude, work ethic and magical baseball skills could land him a spot in next month’s All-Star Game.

A recent ESPN.com story asked the question: If you could build a team around a cornerstone shortstop right now, who would you take? ESPN’s baseball pundits picked Tovar ninth.

To which Black rolled his eyes and said, “I’m not sure they have seen our guy play.”

Still, with Dodgers star Mookie Betts out of the Midsummer Classic after suffering a broken left hand, the door has opened a little wider for Tovar to bust through and make the National League roster.

“He’d better make it, or the system is rigged,” second baseman Brendan Rodgers said.

Tovar entered the Rockies’ weekend series against Washington ranked near the top in several categories among National League shortstops. He was first in doubles (23), second in average (.280) and OPS (.783) and tied for fourth in home runs (11, nine of which came on the road).

Defensively, he’s led all NL shortstops with a .991 fielding percentage (three errors in 340 total chances), 221 assists and 52 double plays. His eight defensive runs saved led all major league shortstops and ranked fourth among all infielders.

Tovar doesn’t like to talk about statistics, preferring to let his baseball passion speak for him.

“I just know there is a kid out there who wants to watch me play,” Tovar said. “Whether I go 0 for 4 or whether I have a great game, I want to leave a good impression. There are kids out there who want to watch me play, and I don’t want to let them down.”

Somewhere, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio is smiling.

“There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time,” Joltin’ Joe famously said. “I owe him my best.”

DiMaggio made 13 All-Star teams. Tovar is hoping for his first, following in the footsteps of Rockies shortstops Troy Tulowitzki and Trevor Story. But, in a typically balanced response that belies his youth, Tovar said: “I have zero control over that, other than what I do on the field.”

Tovar is popular among his teammates but is not at the center of clubhouse card games and tends to keep a low profile.

“For the most part, he’s pretty serious,” Diaz said. “But he can be funny, too. He likes the guys, they like him, and he loves baseball. But, like I said, he’s pretty serious.”

Tovar counters Diaz, saying, “I guess I’m the same person, regardless of what’s happening. I joke when I need to joke. Sometimes I just look serious, but I do have fun. I am who I am.”

Tovar flashes his silly side when he’s doing fielding drills with infield/third base coach Warren Schaeffer and first baseman Elehuris Montero. Schaeffer fires baseballs out of a small red machine while the two infielders field grounders from their knees, testing their hand-eye coordination. Tovar and Montero’s friendly competition produces grins, giggles and fist-bumps.

Tovar’s not one for flamboyant bat flips, but earlier this month, when he hit two home runs in a game in St. Louis, he briefly celebrated the moment, holding up two fingers as he rounded the bases after his second blast. After the game, however, Tovar downplayed his power surge.

“I don’t feel like I have that (much) power. The home run, for me, is like an accident,” Tovar told Rockies.TV.

Tovar’s even-tempered persona stems partly from his natural personality and partly from discovering at a young age that being mature and responsible would get him where he wanted to go. He credits his parents for pointing him in the right direction.

His father, Rodney, worked at a motorcycle plant in Venezuela. When Tovar hit the first home run of his career — a solo shot off Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium in the final game of the 2022 season, Tovar’s ninth game in the majors — he made sure he got the ball back so he could give it to his dad.

Tovar’s mother, Geppsy, was a homemaker.

“My dad was always a good example for me; he put food on the table,” Tovar said. “My mom was always around for me when I was a kid.”

Tovar began chasing his baseball dream at age of 12. That’s when he left his hometown and hopped on an airplane for the first time. He flew to Margarita Island to attend the Roberto Vahlis Baseball Academy, one of Venezuela’s premier youth baseball training grounds.

At 13, as political and economic turmoil developed in Venezuela, Tovar flew 1,200 miles from home to live and train at Vahlis’ new academy in the Dominican Republic.

“I couldn’t afford to be a scared little kid,” he said.

The Rockies signed Tovar for $800,000 on Aug. 1, 2017, his 16th birthday. Facing players usually two years older than him, Tovar slashed .262/.369/.354 in 35 games in the Dominican Summer League.

At 17, playing for the short-season low-A Boise (Idaho) Hawks, where the average player is nearly 21, Tovar slashed .249/.304/.313. That summer, Tovar lived with Tracy Poff, a longtime high school teacher in Boise. Poff and her sons, Mason and Landon, were Tovar’s host family.

“He’s quietly confident and he’s charismatic,” said Poff, who’s in Denver this week to see Tovar play. Poff and her two sons had dinner with Tovar on Thursday night.

During his summer in Boise, Tovar bonded with Mason and Landon. But now he has a son of his own.

“It’s the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in my life,” he said. “It’s not just the responsibility of it, but the motivation and drive that my son gives me. Luciano goes to most games, and that’s part of my motivation. And when I go home, I know he’s waiting for me. He’s changed me for the better.”

Laura and Luciano have given him another reason to find balance.

“Baseball’s a tough game and we all know that we are going to fail,” Tovar said. “I can’t take that failure home with me. I know I have to be the same person. I have to be able to separate that failure at the ballpark from who I am. I have to be the same person when I walk through the door.”

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Playing catch-up

Midway through his second full season, Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar is in the hunt for an All-Star Game bid — something neither Trevor Story nor Troy Tulowitzki received until their third and fourth seasons, respectively. Younger than both in his debut season, Tovar is slowly catching up to the production his shortstop predecessors enjoyed in purple pinstripes. Here’s a look at each player’s numbers through their second season*:

Player	Tovar	Story	Tulowitzki
Age	21-22	23-24	22-23
Games	227	242	256
Average	.262	.253	.280
On-base %	.294	.322	.349
Slugging %	.431	.504	.449
Doubles	60	53	57
Triples	6	7	7
Homers	26	51	32
Walks	36	84	95
Strikeouts	255	321	186
Stolen bases	15	15	8
WAR	5.1	6.9	7.5
dWAR	3.5	3.8	4.7

*Tovar’s stats entering Friday night | Source: baseball-reference.com

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