Trevor Story Is Young And Strong And Keeps Hitting Dingers

The Rockies don’t have Troy Tulowitzki anymore. They do have Trevor Story, a 23-year-old rookie shortstop who just became the first player in MLB history to hit a homer in each his first three career games. He went deep twice in his first game, making him the only player in history to mash four taters in his first three games.

Story’s not a slap hitter who’s on a lucky run of fence-scrapers, nor is he enjoying the high altitude in Colorado. These dingers look like they belong to an honest-to-God power hitter:

His third homer traveled 433 feet sounded like a gunshot:

And here’s the one he hit in the first inning of today’s game:

Story was drafted in 2011, and immediately drew comparisons to Tulowitzki due to their similar sizes and power strokes. He hit some snags in the minors—his strikeout rate ballooned to 34 percent at Double A in 2014—and became something of an afterthought, especially with young shortstop prospects like Carlos Correa and Corey Seager lighting it up. But he rebounded a bit last season and put together a decent campaign between Double A and Triple A, so his success isn’t coming totally out of nowhere.

More than that, this spate of homers isn’t completely unexpected. He’s always had power, and as FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan pointed out before the start of this season, he was one of the most extreme fly-ball hitters in the minors last year. Story may or may not prove to be an All-Star or even a good major league player, but he’s a big strong boy who can smoke some baseballs, and it’s been fun watching him introduce himself to the National League by doing exactly that.

Photo via AP