As spring training opens Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., Ezequiel Tovar is slotted as the club’s starting shortstop. More than that, the hope is he will follow in the footsteps of Troy Tulowitzki and Trevor Story and become an all-star.
That’s where he attended the Roberto Vahlis Baseball Academy — one of Venezuela’s premier youth baseball training grounds.Tovar was all of 12 years old.
“With Tovar, you see a high level of confidence and self-assurance of who he is as a player,” said manager Bud Black, who usually tempers his comments regarding young players. “It’s somewhat rare to see somebody that young play with that ease of comfortability, knowing that he’s a talented player. “I know is a small window, so I have to compete, I have to earn that position,” Tovar continued. “I want to do it the same way I did it in the minor leagues. Enjoy the process and be fearless and compete. I want to have fun.”
“When he was so young, Ezequiel had the signs of becoming a player, and his fielding skills were elite, but you never know what a kid will become when he’s that young,” Fernandez said. “But he showed a lot of baseball IQ and instincts and he was very professional for such a young kid. When we scouted him, we knew he was mature, but in reality, we didn’t know how advanced he was.”
At 17, playing for the short-season low-A Boise Hawks, where the average player is nearly 21, Tovar slashed .253/.318/.313. The power was absent — he hit just two homers in 243 plate appearances — but his fielding remained top-notch, and it was clear the Rockies had something special.
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