There was always an agreement between Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort and his star shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki, spoken out loud so as to be abundantly clear: If the Rockies were to trade Tulowitzki, they were going to ask for his blessing first. Then came the blockbuster deal that sent him to the Toronto Blue Jays late Monday night, and Tulowitzki, according to sources inside the Rockies' clubhouse, found out not via a phone call but when teary-eyed manager Walt Weiss yanked him from their game in the ninth inning.

The story of how Tulowitzki was treated, relayed by people aggrieved with his departure and how the Rockies broke their word to the longtime face of their franchise, is actually a fitting end to a multiyear trade-him-or-don’t saga that wound up with Tulowitzki fetching his passport and heading to Canada along with LaTroy Hawkins for shortstop Jose Reyes and a trio of right-handed pitching prospects: Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro and Jesus Tinoco.

Fearful Tulowitzki requesting a trade publicly would make the Rockies look weak, the team asked him to play good soldier, which he obliged, according to club sources. The organization’s dysfunction, from the power struggles between former co-GMs Dan O’Dowd and Bill Geivett to a hands-on owner in Monfort whose public comments about players often rubbed them the wrong way, was all too evident, not just to Tulowitzki but the team’s young core of Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon, D.J. Lemahieu and Corey Dickerson.

Troy Tulowitzki is joining a potent Blue Jays offense. (Getty Images) More

The stunned silence of players early Tuesday morning, when word of the trade came down, spoke to the disappointment of losing Tulowitzki. As the Rockies stashed him in Weiss’ office to keep him from addressing a deal that early Tuesday remained unconfirmed by either team, the truth of Tulowitzki’s exit filtered into the clubhouse and left the players even more gobsmacked, according to sources.

Colorado seemed to oblige Tulowitzki’s preference not to go to the New York Mets, though in hindsight that was probably more an inability for GM Jeff Bridich and Mets GM Sandy Alderson to find the framework of a workable deal. One with Toronto came together quickly, sources said, particularly when the Blue Jays were willing to include Hoffman and Castro, both of whom can reach 100 mph with their fastballs.

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The Blue Jays’ risk is evident: Not only are they taking on the full haul of Tulowitzki’s contract through 2020 — about $52 million more than Reyes’ deal that ends in 2017 — but they're trusting he’ll be able to stay healthy on the taxing turf of Rogers Centre.

If he can, the upshot is that the scariest offense in baseball by a long shot got even better. Tulowitzki, 30, remains the premier shortstop in baseball, and after a miserable start, he’s hitting .300/.348/.471, even with a current 0-for-20 stretch on his ledger. He joins Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin, Devon Travis and Chris Colabello in an offense that has scored 72 runs — nearly two-thirds of a run per game — more than any other team.

While the trade for Tulowitzki would seem to portend a deal that includes a player from that offense to get the Blue Jays a desperately needed starting pitcher, that’s not in the plans, sources said. They’ll once again tap into their deep reservoir of prospects to acquire one. At 50-50 despite a plus-95 run differential, the best in the American League, the Blue Jays’ pitching this season has torpedoed its fortunes. Three games back of the second wild card, Toronto believes that with rotation and bullpen fortification, it can make a legitimate playoff run in a down AL.

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