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TAMPA, Fla. — A meaningless Grapefruit League at-bat in February wasn’t that at all for Troy Tulowitzki.

Digging into a major-league batter’s box for the first time since July 28, 2017, the veteran shortstop who was paid $38 million to go away in December by the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t wait long to rub it in his former employer’s face.

With the obvious caveat that we’re talking about spring training, of course.

With Marcus Stroman making his spring debut, Tulowitzki drove the second pitch of the game just inside the right field foul pole for a leadoff home run, and the 34-year-old proceeded to fist pump and yell his way around the bases with his familiar long-legged gait.

“That was the team that basically told me I couldn’t play anymore,” Tulowitzki told reporters inside the George M. Steinbrenner Field home clubhouse. “It’s spring training, it is what it is, but it was a big day for myself.”

In case you forgot, less than a week before he gave Tulowitzki his outright release at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas on Dec. 11, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins offered his take on where the veteran’s career was headed.

“He will have to overachieve to play shortstop at an above average level with above average offensive performance for 140 games,” Atkins said. “That would be unlikely based on what has occurred in the last two-and-a-half years. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to do it, but, candidly, I don’t think that’s likely.”

By all accounts, Tulowitzki has shown up to Yankee camp this month in good shape and generally looking like he’s worthy of a spot on a major-league team.

“I've been thinking about that at-bat for a long, long time,” Tulowitzki said. “I got a little pumped up there, but anybody who tells you you're done, you’re going to have a little extra fire.”

Whether or not his health can hold up for an entire season is the question, one that can only be answered by time plus performance.

On this day, however, many are revisiting questioning the surprising decision to eat $20 million this year, $14 million in 2020, and then the $4 million buyout he would’ve been paid that winter to escape the final year of the deal.

It’s hasty, and another reminder is needed that it’s still February, but it’s clear Tulowitzki is motivated to prove the Blue Jays wrong, while also playing in the same division and on a World Series contender to boot.

Stroman, meanwhile, didn’t seem too concerned about the dinger, flashing a slight grin as he rubbed up a new baseball while Tulo rounded the bases.

“That's my guy, that's my guy,” Stroman grinned afterwards in the visitors clubhouse. “It's not going to happen in season, I promise you that. I started him off with a curveball, just to mess around, and he hit a sinker away pretty good. That's baseball.”

Stroman said the pair keep in touch “all the time” and he wishes Tulowitzki was still around, which is obviously the exact opposite opinion of a front office that wanted new leadership voices in the clubhouse and preferred to hand playing time to younger players and a healthy stopgap option in the recently signed Freddy Galvis.

“I would always prefer him on my team,” Stroman said. “But, like I said, I'm ecstatic to see him somewhere being healthy, back out there, doing what Tulo can do. I know how much of a grind, and I know how tough it has been for him the last few years, so to see him back out there with full health is really exciting.”

Exciting enough to serve up a springtime meatball to help kickstart the comeback?

Only Stroman knows the answer to that one.