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Rockies Need Tovar to be Better Moving Forward
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- Rockies Need Tovar to be Better Moving Forward
(© Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images)
The Colorado Rockies are still baseball's worst team, but that may not be the case much longer.
The Rockies demonstrated this season that they have a core group of young players worth being excited about. Such talent includes All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman , who is coming off a 40-home-run season, Jake McCarthy, TJ Rumfield and Cole Carrigg .
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While the aforementioned names have given the Rockies a reason to hope for better days ahead, not every young player on the roster is thriving. Unfortunately, shortstop Ezequiel Tovar is among those who are not producing good results.
Tovar's 2026 struggles for Rockies
Tovar, 25, played his fourth full season on Colorado's active roster after making his MLB debut on Sept. 23, 2022. Up to this point, Tovar's 2024 season has proved to be his best.
Over 157 games that year, Tovar posted a .269 batting average, a .295 on-base percentage, a .469 slugging percentage and a .764 OPS with 26 home runs and 78 RBIs, all of which were career highs.
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Since then, Tovar has not come close to reaching those heights.
Injuries suffered during the 2025 season limited Tovar to 95 games, and his slash line fell to .253/.294/.400, while his OPS declined to .694. He also only hit nine home runs.
With Tovar healthy this season, one might think he could have gotten back to the peak form he achieved in 2024, but that was not the case. In 146 games this season, Tovar logged a .219 batting average and a .617 OPS, the lowest marks he has registered since 2022.
The same can be said for his on-base percentage (.264) and his slugging percentage (.353). Tovar also hit only 13 home runs.
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The big issue plaguing Tovar as a hitter has always been strikeouts.
As good as he was in 2024, his 200 strikeouts were the second most in Major League Baseball. Tovar got that number down this season, but he still struck out 129 times while not being nearly as productive as he was two years ago.
As it stands, Tovar is in the midst of a seven-year, $63.5 million contract with the Rockies, and after being on the payroll for $5.2 million in 2026, he is only set to make more money moving forward.
Colorado does not have a club option on him until 2031, his age-29 season. Tovar signed his contract just ahead of his productive 2024 season.
Given the commitment the team has to him, his decline is concerning. For the Rockies to continue to improve and not regret committing to Tovar, he is going to need to be much better.
