Trea Turner

Trea Vance Turner
(Triple T)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 175 lb.
School North Carolina State University
High School Park Vista Community High School
Debut August 21, 2015

Born June 30, 1993 in Boynton Beach, FL USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Shortstop Trea Turner was selected 13th overall in the 2014 amateur draft then was involved in a blockbuster trade a few months later.

Turner was first picked in the 20th round of the 2011 amateur draft, by the Pittsburgh Pirates, out of a high school in his native Florida. He decided to attend North Carolina State University instead of signing and three years later was picked in the first round by the San Diego Padres and scout Tyler Stubblefield. He decided to forgo his final year of college eligibility to turn pro and was immediately assigned to the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League, where he hit .228 in 23 games as he got his feet wet in the pro ranks. He was then promoted to the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League and there began to hit with a vengeance,putting up a batting line of .369/.447/.529 in 46 games, with 4 homers and 22 RBIs. Gifted with outstanding speed, he stole 23 bases in 69 games.

On December 17, 2014, the Padres swung a blockbuster deal with the Tampa Bay Rays in order to acquire OF Wil Myers and C Ryan Hanigan, giving up five players in return, including Turner. He and another former first-rounder, pitcher Joe Ross, were then flipped to the Washington Nationals, in return for OF Steven Souza, who was slated to become a starter in Tampa's outfield, and P Travis Ott. Because Turner had been drafted less than a year earlier, however, he fell victim to the so-called "Pete Incaviglia rule" which meant he could only join the Nats as a player to be named later, staying in limbo until June 14, 2015, the first anniversary of his signing with the Padres. As a result he reported to the Padres' major league spring training facility in February, even though everyone knew he was the de facto property of the Nationals. He played 58 games for the San Antonio Missions of the Texas League, hitting .322 with 5 homers and 35 RBIs, before he was officially allowed to join the Nats' organization. Once the trade was completed, GM Anthony Rizzo thanked the Padres for handling Turner well during the period he was no longer their property but still had to play in their organization; the Nats were not allowed to speak to him during that time, but had scouts check him out regularly. He played for the United States team in the 2015 Futures Game and on August 21st, the Nationals, in danger of falling out of playoff contention altogether, called him up to Washington. He made his debut that day against the Milwaukee Brewers, entering the game in a double switch in the 7th and went 0 for 2. In 27 games, he hit .225, his only RBI coming on a solo homer.

In 2016, he began the season with the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League and hit .302 in 83 games, with 6 homers and 33 RBIs. He was first called up to Washington for a couple of games in early June, and then permanently the day before the All-Star break. He played second base and increasingly centerfield for the Nats, eventually taking over the lead-off spot. He was the National League Rookie of the Month for August, when he hit .357 in 28 games, with 14 extra-base hits and 25 runs. On September 9th, he hit two homers in a game, including the game-winner off Frank Herrmann with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, to give Washington a 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He repeated as Rookie of the Month in September when he hit .339 with 9 homers and 18 RBIs. For the year, he hit a scorching .342 in 73 games, with 14 doubles, 8 triples and 13 homers, 53 runs, 40 RBIs and 33 stolen bases, phenomenal numbers for only half a season. His OPS+ was an outstanding 144.

After the 2016 season, the Nationals made a couple of moves that meant Trea would return to his natural positions of shortstop in 2017. First, on December 7th, they traded three top pitching prospects to the Chicago White Sox to acquire OF Adam Eaton and immediately announced he would take over in centerfield. Then, two days later, the Nats sent incumbent SS Danny Espinosa to the Los Angeles Angels, clearing the spot for Turner. On April 25th, he became the third player in Nationals history to hit for the cycle when he did so against the Colorado Rockies in a 15-12 win at Coors Field. On a chilly night, he hit a two-run double and a two-run homer in addition to a bases-loaded triple and a single to drive in 7 runs, one less than the team record. The last Nationals player to have hit for the cycle had been Cristian Guzman on August 28, 2008. The following day, he missed another cycle by a triple, then had another three-hit game on April 27th. For the four-game series at Coors Field, he went 11-for-21 with 4 doubles, a triple and two homers, scoring 10 and driving in 11. The Nats won three of the four games, and scored in double figures in all three wins. On June 27th, he had four stolen bases in a 6-1 win over the Chicago Cubs as the Nats victimized the battery of Jake Arrieta and Miguel Montero for seven steals in only four innings to tie a franchise record. He was leading the majors with 35 steals when he suffered a broken wrist on June 29th when hit by a pitch thrown by the Cubs' Pedro Strop. he returned to action on August 29th. he finished the season at .284 in 98 games, with 75 runs scored, 11 homers, 45 RBIs and 46 stolen bases. However, he fizzled in the postseason, as he was just 3 for 23 in Washington's loss to the Chicago Cubs in the Division Series.

In 2018 he had a healthy first half on a team beset by injuries that underperformed as a result. On July 5th, he had a career game against the Miami Marlins as he helped the Nats fight back from an 8-0 deficit in the 4th inning by homering twice, including his first career grand slam, and driving in 8 runs in a 14-12 win. The win was particularly important as the Nats had lost 17 of their previous 22 games and had fallen one game below .500 after starting the year as prohibitive favorites to repeat as division champions. On July 29th, he became the latest athlete of his generation to be enmeshed in a scandal caused by old social media messages containing hateful language re-surfacing years after the fact. Turner's posts dated back to 2011-2012, when he was in high school. On September 4th, he suffered the embarrassment of being thrown out on a walk. He was at first base when Bryce Harper had a 3-2 count and took of for second on the pitch. The pitch was Ball Four, but C Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals still threw to second base, and Turner was called out after a video review for briefly overrunning the second base bag and losing contact with it when the tag was applied. While a batter can advance to the next base on a walk without the ability to be put out, that immunity ends as soon as he reached the next base, which is why it was no longer in play when Turner broke contact with the bag. In spite of that hiccup, on September 23rd he set a new Nationals career record with his 123rd stolen base, eclipsing Ian Desmond's total. This of course did not include stolen bases amassed by members of the Montreal Expos before moving to Washington in 2005, namely the total of 634 by Hall of Famer Tim Raines. He finished the season at .271 with 27 doubles, 19 homers, 103 runs and 73 RBIs; he played all 162 games and also led the NL with 43 stolen bases.

He was off to a great start in 2019, with 5 hits including a double and a pair of homers, 4 runs, 4 RBIs and 4 RBIs in his first five games when he broke his right index finger on a bunt attempt in the 1st inning on April 2nd. He was immediately placed on the injured list. He was back on May 17th and played regularly at shortstop from that point on. On July 23rd, he hit for the cycle for the second time of his career, and it again came against the Rockies in an 11-1 win. He was just the third player to hit two cycles against the same team, following Fred Clarke and Christian Yelich (who had victimized the Cincinnati Reds twice the previous year). Just as his early-season injury had been a big factor in the Nationals stumbling off to a poor start, his production after his return helped to lead them to the promised land, as they made postseason as a wild card teams, something that had seemed impossible after their first 50 games. He hit .298 in 122 games, with 37 doubles, 5 triples, 19 homers, 96 runs scored, 57 RBIs and 35 stolen bases in 40 attempts, good for an OPS+ of 118. He hit a homer in the win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card Game, then had 6 hits including 3 doubles in the upset win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series, and another 5 hits in four games in a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS to bring Washington to its first ever participation in the World Series. Facing the Houston Astros in a tight, seven-game affair, he went 5 for 31 (.161) with 3 walks and 4 runs scored as Washington came out on top and win its first Championship.

In 2020, he was one of the most productive players on a team that seemed to suffer from a collective hangover after its unlikely World Series win the year before, hitting .335 with a career-best OPS+ of 165. This came during the pandemic-shortened season, so he played just 59 games (out of 60), but he led the National League with 78 hits and 4 triples, added 15 doubles and 12 homers and was in the top 10 in the league in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He undoubtedly would have been named an All-Star for the first time, but the All-Star Game fell victim to the pandemic. He did finish 7th in the voting for the MVP Award, his first time receiving consideration for the award.

On June 30, 2021 - his 28th birthday - he became only the fifth player in history to have hit for the cycle three times as he performed the feat in a 15-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. He needed only six innings to amass the four hits, completing the job with a triple in the 6th, before having to leave the game with a finger injury. He joined an exclusive club consisting of Adrian Beltre, Babe Herman, Bob Meusel and John Reilly. He was named to the All-Star team for the first time that year, then on July 28th was removed from a game after one inning. There was speculation on social media that he had been traded, but in fact he had returned a positive test for COVID-19 and had to be placed in isolation for ten days. But those who thought there was a trade brewing were also right, as rumors of a blockbuster deal also involving teammate Max Scherzer being sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers emerged the next day and the deal was confirmed on July 30th. Trea was batting .322 in 96 games, with 66 runs scored, 18 homers and 49 RBIs. Heading the other way were four prospects, including the top pitching and hitting prospects for the Dodgers, respectively Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz. He hit .338 in 52 games with Los Angeles to finish the year with the National League batting title at .328. Between the two teams, he hit 34 doubles and 28 homers, led the league in hits with 195, stolen bases with 32 and total bases with 319. He also scored 107 runs and drove in 77, with an OPS+ of 145. In the postseason, he went 11 for 51 as the Dodgers made it to the NLCS which they lost to the Atlanta Braves.

He played mainly second base during his first few months with the Dodgers, but in 2022 moved back to his natural position, shortstop, after Corey Seager left via free agency. The team had another great year, winning a major league-leading 111 games, and he was at the center of things, batting .298 in 169 games, with 101 runs and 100 RBIs - the latter being the first time he reached the century mark - with 39 doubles and 21 homers. He was also successful in 27 of 30 stolen base attempts and his OPS+ was 121. He was named to the All-Star team for the second time and won his first Silver Slugger Award as the best hitter in the NL at his position. he continued to hit well in the postseason, going 6 for 18 with 2 doubles and 2 homers in the Division Series against the San Diego Padres, but the Dodgers were still upset in four games. After the season, he became a free agent for the first time and was much sought-after. On December 5th, it was announced that the Philadelphia Phillies had won the bidding war for his services by offering him an 11-year contract worth $300 million. One concern was that he would be 40 years old by the time the contract reached its end - a pretty advanced age for a player whose game revolved in large part around speed and a superior batting average. In any case, he celebrated the signing of the contract with an outstanding performance for Team USA at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, tying Seung-yeop Lee's 17-year-old tournament record with five homers, including one in the final loss to Japan on March 21st.

He got off to a disappointing start in his first season with the Phillies in 2023, hitting a middling .247 with 10 homers over the first half of the season, with an OPS of .687, figures well below what the team's fans were expecting. However, these same fans, usually known for their cruelty and quickness to boo underperforming players, gave him a big show of confidence by cheering for him when the Phils returned from a road trip in early August, and he in turn bought space on a highway billboard to thank these fans for their support. In any case, on August 19th, he performed a very rare feat when he hit two homers in one inning during a 12-3 win over one of his former team the Washington Nationals. He did this in the 8th inning, both times against Cory Abbott, with the first one as the leadoff batter in the inning breaking a 3-3 tie, and the second one completing an eight-run inning. He was the third player in team history to perform the feat, the last having been Von Hayes back in 1985. Not surprisingly, he was one of the major league players taking advantage of rule changes that had made stealing bases easier, and by mid-September he was a perfect 27 out of 27 on stolen base attempts, giving him the chance of setting a new record for most thefts without being caught in a season, ahead of Chase Utley who had been perfect in 23 attempts for the Phils in 2009. Turner did indeed set the record, finishing the season a perfect 30 for 30 in stolen base attempts, to go along with a .266 average in 155 games, 102 runs, 26 homers and 76 RBIs. In the postseason, he appeared in 13 games, going 17 for 49 with 3 homers as the Philles were eliminated by the Arizona Diamondbacks at the NLCS stage.

Heading into 2024, analysts focused on the modern record for most consecutive stolen bases without being caught, that being 50 by Vince Coleman in 1988 and 1989. He had been successful in final 5 attempts in 2022, and adding the 30 from 2023, he was at 35 - thus within striking distance of the mark.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2016 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
2-time NL All-Star (2021 & 2022)
NL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2022)
NL Batting Average Leader (2021)
2-time NL At-Bats Leader (2018 & 2022)
2-time NL Hits Leader (2020 & 2021)
NL Total Bases Leader (2021)
2-time NL Singles Leader (2021 & 2022)
NL Triples Leader (2020)
2-time NL Stolen Bases Leader (2018 & 2021)
20-Home Run Seasons: 3 (2021-2023)
100 RBI Seasons: 1 (2022)
100 Run Scored Seasons: 4 (2018 & 2021-2023)
Won one World Series with the Washington Nationals in 2019

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Trea Turner

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