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, 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 3.
