Tovar ready for rehab, excited for future pairing with Estrada at keystone
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DENVER – Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar packed Thursday to leave town, but what he saw before he packed made him eager to return.
Tovar, who has missed a month with a left oblique strain, said he is headed to Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday to begin his injury rehab assignment.
It has been a painful 2025 for Tovar, who won his first National League Gold Glove Award at shortstop last year. He missed a month earlier with a left hip contusion, then hit .306 over 16 games through June 2 before leaving the lineup with the oblique problem.
After doing aggressive running on the bases at Coors Field on Thursday, Tovar watched second baseman Thairo Estrada homer while going 3-for-4 with four RBIs in the Rockies’ 7-6 victory over the Astros.
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Estrada has had his share of injuries – a fractured right wrist that cost him the season’s first 56 games, and a bruise on the same wrist that cost him five games in June.
Tovar and Estrada – a pairing the Rockies were looking forward to when they signed Estrada to a one-year contract with a 2026 mutual option – have been active at the same time for just four games and played together just three times this season.
The Rockies believe that having the intended middle infield could have made a difference to their record – 20-67, which with Thursday’s win leapfrogged four other teams for the fifth-worst record after 87 decisions in the Modern Era (since 1900). The 1904 Washington Senators were the worst at 18-69, and the 1907 St. Louis Cardinals, 1916 Philadelphia Athletics and 1911 Boston Rustlers were 19-68.
Tovar was looking forward to joining Estrada in the effort to escape from that history page.
“He’s a really nice ballplayer,” Tovar said. “And besides, he’s a really good human – good friend, good teammate. It’s easy for me.”
Estrada, batting .317 with a .775 OPS in 25 games, was equally excited about Tovar’s pending return.
“We all know what kind of player ‘Tovie’ is – a good hitter, Gold Glover,” Estrada said in Spanish, with third-base coach Andy González translating. “We’re all excited. We want him to get back and show what a middle infield should look like.”
Tovar is heading to Albuquerque after a week of batting and fielding practice and accelerated running.
“I’m trying to feel comfortable,” Tovar said. “I don’t feel pain, not right now. But I need to get to game speed.”