Todd Helton had 15 career games played in the outfield during his 17-year Major League career, all coming during his first taste of the big leagues in 1997. At the time, the Colorado Rockies still employed the franchise’s first ever All-Star Andrés Galarraga to man first base, so getting Helton’s bat in the lineup meant deploying him to left field, outside of his normal comfort zone at first base. But Galarraga was set to be a free agent after the 1997 season, so the temporary positioning of Helton was apparent. By the start of the 1998 season, Helton was back at first, where he would play for another 2,170 games.
The Rockies are laying out high expectations, and a convoluted path, for Michael Toglia.
