Nik Turley

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Nikolas Carlyle Turley

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Biographical Information[edit]

Starting pitcher Nik Turley began his professional career in the New York Yankees system in 2008. He is a distant relative of Bob Turley. It took him 10 minor league seasons before he got his first opportunity to play in the majors in 2017.

He was taken by the club as the third-to-last pick of the 2008 amateur draft. He turned down a scholarship to Brigham Young University and signed by scout Stewart Smothers. Turley pitched for the GCL Yankees in 2008, going 2-1 with a 1.12 ERA in 4 games (one start). He also had 13 strikeouts in 8 innings. The next season, he was 2-3 with a 2.82 ERA in 11 games (10 starts) for the GCL Yankees. On August 28 of that season, he pitched the first part of a rain-shortened 8-inning no-hitter against the GCL Blue Jays. He was relieved by Manny Barreda in the 7th, having allowed only one walk and one hit batsman.

In 2010, he was 4-6 with a 3.86 ERA in 15 games (14 starts) split between the GCL squad (0-2, 7 R, 1 ER in 10 2/3 IP) and the Staten Island Yankees (4-4, 4.38). In 2011, he was 4-6 with a 2.81 ERA in 17 starts split between the Charleston RiverDogs (4-6, 2.51) and Tampa Yankees (8 R in 7 1/3 IP). Baseball America rated him as having the best control in the Yankees chain as he walked 22 in 89 2/3 IP. He was a Florida State League All-Star in 2012, after going 9-5 with 116 strikeouts and a 2.89 ERA in 23 games (21 starts; 112 IP) for Tampa. He also started a game for the Trenton Thunder that season, allowing three runs in 5 innings. The other FSL All-Star hurlers were Matt Loosen, Adam Morgan, Austin Wright, Daniel Barnes and Adam Kolarek. He had led the FSL in ERA, .24 ahead of runner-up Austin Kirk. He also tied for 8th in wins and was 4th in whiffs (between Wright and Loosen). Baseball America put him down as the #18 prospect in the loop, between Slade Heathcott and Wilmer Flores and as the Yanks' 14th-best prospect. Among Yankee farmhands, he had finished second to Vidal Nuno in ERA, tied Nuno for 4th in wins and was 5th in strikeouts (between Brett Marshall and Adam Warren).

In 2013, he was 11-8 with a 3.88 ERA in 27 games (26 starts) for Trenton. He also got his first taste of Triple-A action, making a start for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and allowing only one run in six innings. He tied Scottie Allen for second in wins and the franchise's minor leaguers, one behind Shane Greene. He was also second with 141 whiffs (five behind Rafael De Paula). He tied Keith Couch, Casey Sadler and Mike Wright for 4th in the EL in wins, led with 16 hit batsmen, was second with 73 walks (9 behind Jesse Biddle), was 5th in strikeouts (between Deck McGuire and Wright) and led with six balks. He tied Dan Reynolds and Ryan Merritt for 5th in the minor leagues in balks. In 2014, he was 5-3 with a 4.43 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) between Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and the GCL Yankees 1.

For 2015, he signed as a free agent with the San Francisco Giants and spent the year with the [[Sacramento River Cats (19 G) and San Jose Giants (1 G). He was 8-8 with a 4.39 ERA overall. He then signed with the Chicago White Sox following the season, but was released prior to the start of 2016. Latching on with the Boston Red Sox, Turley became a reliever and went 1-2 with a 4.29 ERA in 20 games (2 starts), striking out 12.1 batters per nine innings for the Portland Sea Dogs. He was released partway through the year and signed with the independent Somerset Patriots, going 5-1 with a 2.02 ERA in 49 innings, striking out 66 batters. He signed with the Minnesota Twins for 2017. That finally got him a shot of the majors, as the Twins called him up to start a game against the Giants on June 11th. He had begun the year in AA, with the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern League, going 0-1 in 5 games but with a sparkling 0.37 ERA in 24 1/3 innings. That earned him a promotion to AAA and the Rochester Red Wings where he continued to pitch well even if he was not registering many wins. After 7 games, including 5 starts, he was 1-2, but with an ERA of 3.49 and 39 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings. That finally earned him his shot at the big leagues. In his debut he gave up 4 runs in 4 innings and ended up with a no-decision. He had a particularly tough start against the Chicago White Sox on June 22nd; not only was the start of the game delayed by rain for four hours and fifty minutes, but once it got started, he lasted only two-thirds of an inning, allowing 5 runs and 6 hits as the White Sox cruised to a 9-0 win. He went 0-2, 11.21 in 10 games (3 starts).

On November 6, 2017, he was claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates but in January of 2018, he was handed a suspension of 80 games for testing positive to a PED.

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