Tovar tossing '25 in the rear-view as he eyes turnaround season

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It didn’t take long for shortstop Ezequiel Tovar to move on from a season to forget -- for himself and for a Rockies team that had the Majors’ worst record at 43-119.

“Right from the last game,” Tovar said in Spanish, with Edwin Perez interpreting. “You’ve got to turn the page.”

Now that Tovar, 24, feels healthy after left hip and left oblique injuries last year limited him to 95 games and a .253/.294/.400 slash line, he would not mind making all of baseball intelligentsia turn back its collective page.

In 2024, Tovar earned a Gold Glove Award for the first time, led the National League with 45 doubles and led his team with 26 home runs. He seemed on his way to sport-wide recognition. But there are a lot of standout shortstops, as evidenced by MLB Network’s latest unveiling of the Top 10 Shortstops Right Now. Thought of as a player on the cusp going into last season, Tovar was forgotten when the 2026 list was released.

“I’m a fan of those guys that are really good,” Tovar said. “But for me, the main competition is with myself. There’s always room to be a better player. I don’t like to compare myself to anyone -- I always like to look at myself and see how I can improve as a player.”

Tovar soon will have a chance to start putting himself back on the radar. On March 1, he will head to the World Baseball Classic to represent Venezuela, a country he has represented only once -- as a 12-year-old in a tournament in Puerto Rico. Rockies pitcher and Venezuela teammate Antonio Senzatela believes Tovar’s days as a forgotten young star are numbered.

“It’s OK,” Senzatela said, smiling. “He’s going to be good and fun to watch. He’s nice.”

The Rockies have undergone massive change on the field and in the front office, but the plan remains to build around Tovar, who is entering the third season of a seven-year, $63.5 million contract.

“When ‘Tovie’ is in the lineup doing his thing, he energizes people,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said.

Last year began falling apart for Tovar -- and a Rockies team that needed all to go well to have even a decent year -- in the season’s third game, when he sustained a left hip contusion in Tampa on a sliding backhand play. The freakish injury occurred on a hard surface at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where there wasn’t time to repair a field that had gone through a full Spring Training.

Tovar later missed over a month due to a left oblique strain, and he has done his part to prevent similar injuries this winter with a detailed workout and eating program. Maybe by correcting swing tendencies that lead to high chase rates -- a struggle he endured even when things were going well -- will help.

“I over-complicated things by doing too much -- too much movement,” Tovar said. “You can do more by doing little. I was doing too much movement, so it’s just simplifying stuff.

“I don’t know for sure if trying to do too much in the batter’s box caused the oblique issue. It could have been the thing, but we don’t know 100 percent. But keeping things simple in the batter’s box will help me.”