The Colorado Rockies’ winter was lackluster. While the teams in their division continued to bolster their ranks, the Rox continued to try to shed payroll. They traded promising outfielder Corey Dickerson to Tampa Bay. Trades for Carlos Gonzalez were widely bantered about, but none came to fruition. Pretty much every person in the Rockies organization not named Nolan Arenado was looking to rent rather than buy in Denver. With all that roster turmoil stirring the pot, Jose Reyes’ domestic violence incident came in an did a cannonball right into said pot. Spring Training is usually a place for the higher ups to get a glimpse of their minor leaguers, but Colorado was even more vigilant this season as they needed to know who would be available to plug in what could eventually be a considerable number of holes. That is where Trevor Story enters and through two games he may be making Colorado’s front office, and their fan base, forget about all the other nonsense surrounding their club and go on a magical ride.
Trevor Story’s story is your fairly standard prospect tale. Drafted in 2011 in the second round by the Rockies, Story turned down a baseball scholarship at LSU to sign with Colorado. He was ranked as the second best prospect in the organization in 2012. That ranking slipped to 7th in 2013 and then to 11th in 2014, 2015, and 2016. These drops weren’t due to poor performances though from the shortstop. They were more indicative of having Troy Tulowitzki as an unflappable incumbent in the Majors and the drafting of Brendan Rodgers in 2015. When the Rockies were finally able to move Tulo in the days leading up to last year’s trade deadline, it looked as if Trevor Story was finally going to get his opportunity. Nevertheless, they got back Jose Reyes from the Blue Jays in that deal pushing Story’s timetable further back.
Story had a pretty decent Spring Training in 2015. He hit .321 with a home run and four RBI. He got on base 10 times over 15 games and scored on seven of those occasions. But still there was the top hitting prospect in the Draft and an All-Star shortstop entrenched in front of him. This year was vastly different.
He tied teammate Nolan Arenado for second in the National League with 6 home runs during Spring Training. He knocked in 13 during the month with a 1.199 OPS figures both only behind the All-Star third baseman on the team. As Jose Reyes’ future was in the hands of commissioner Rob Manfred, and Brendan Rodgers had been re-assigned to Single-A, nothing was in Trevor Story’s way of finally proving his worth for the Rockies on the big league level. But even the most steadfast of his supporters could not have envisioned the beginning to his MLB career.
The first stop for Trevor Story in the Majors was Arizona as his club took on the new darlings of the NL West, the Diamondbacks. The first pitcher he’d have to face? None other than one of the premier pitching signings of the offseason, Zack Greinke. What happened next would put him into not only Rockies lore, but in the MLB history books.
He would homer off Greinke in his second and third at-bats of the afternoon to open up what was a tie game at the time of home run number one. Greinke only allowed two home runs in a game twice last season, never to the same person. He was the first National League player to ever hit two home runs in his first Major League appearance. He was the first player in either league to ever accomplish that feat in a debut on Opening Day. All talk of Reyes, Tulowitzki, or Rodgers were all erased with two mighty hacks from Trevor Story. And somehow he wasn’t done setting records just yet.
The result may have not gone their way in game two of the 2016 season, but Trevor Story did hit another home run, this time off another winter acquisition, Shelby Miller. His third in two games to start his career made him only the second player ever to do so. Team legend Todd Helton is the only other Rockies player to go deep in his first two games in purple and black. But wait, THERE’S MORE.
Batting second in today’s game against the Diamondbacks, Story stepped up against Patrick Corbin with a man on first. Take a guess what happened next? It should come as no surprise at this point that Trevor Story deposited Corbin’s 1-0 pitch over the left center field fence. Four home runs in three games. It just seems surreal.
Now will he continue to wow us on a daily basis, or fade into the ether? Even as a Dodgers fan, I can’t help but crack a smile every time I see my namesake, who looks like he truly loves what he does, get this chance. It is only three chapters in thus far, but it is needless to say that the Rockies and the general viewing public don’t want Trevor’s story to ever end.