Welcome to the 2017 MLB postseason, baseball fans! You’ve spent 162 games with your favorite team, and now it’s time to watch the teams you haven’t paid much attention to. Who are these teams, and who are their best players? We can help.
Trea Turner is ready for his second chance to be a Nationals’ hero
Turner is a newer face who missed time with injury, but he’s also a key to the Nationals’ success.
Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images
Who is Trea Turner?
If you don’t watch the Nationals, you might remember Trea Turner from last year’s NLDS, when every ball hit to center that he couldn’t track down with his speed alone was an adventure. Turner is back at shortstop, though, playing the position where he belongs, so your second impression should be a better one.
What did he do this year?
Turner missed a whole lot of time with a broken right wrist, but when he was on the field, he was a huge piece of the Nationals’ success. Adjusted for his position, Turner had a 114 OPS+ this year, batting .284/.338/.451 with 11 homers in 98 games while stealing 46 bases. It’s not quite the explosion of offense he arrived on the scene in 2016 — Turner’s bat kept him in the outfield a year ago despite his very obvious inexperience there because the Nats needed the offense — but he was still a valuable piece of the puzzle.
How did the Nationals acquire him?
The Padres and Rays were sitting there, innocently putting together a trade where Tampa Bay would give up young centerpiece Wil Myers, likely in exchange for younger centerpiece Turner, and then Nats general manager Mike Rizzo called up the Rays and asked if they’d like to have Steven Souza, who is older than both and not guaranteed to be good going forward, instead. The Rays said yes for some reason.
Now Myers is young and good and working out for the Padres, and Souza finally hit pretty well this year, but Turner is still all of 24 years old and has hit .304/.348/.491 in the majors, and is now doing that at a typically low-offense position. So, you know. Don’t make trades with Mike Rizzo.
Was he always supposed to be this good?
Despite the story above where the Rays passed on a young, inexpensive, up-the-middle talent: Yes. Yes, Turner was always supposed to be this good.
tl;dr
Turner missed time last year by playing in the minors and time this year with a broken wrist, but he’s back at his natural position and is as important to the Nationals now as he’s ever been.
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