Trea Turner heads to the Phillies

Dec 5, 2022 - 7:49 PM

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Trea Turner, one of the biggest prizes on the free agent market, found a new home for 2023 and beyond. The star shortstop agreed to an 11-year contract with the Phillies worth $300 million, per multiple reports.

What the Dodgers got in trading for Turner (and Max Scherzer) at the 2021 deadline was a year and a half of one of the very best players in baseball. He ranked third in MLB in FanGraphs WAR (9.1) since his first game with Los Angeles in August 2021, hitting .307/.353/.490 with a 134 wRC+ with 31 home runs, 38 stolen bases, and 56 doubles in 212 games.

Since Turner joined Los Angeles, the Dodgers were 159-72 (.688) in the regular season and postseason combined, including setting a franchise record with 111 wins in 2022, the most victories by a National League team in 116 years. Turner is so good, his agency got Jon Hamm to narrate a hype video on his behalf.

During his time with Los Angeles, Turner had hitting streaks of 27, 26, 20, 18 and 16 games. His only teammate with a hitting streak over 15 games was Justin Turner, with 16-game streak in 2022.

Last year with the Dodgers, Turner hit .298/.343/.466, a 128 wRC+ with 39 home runs, 21 home runs, 27 stolen bases, 107 runs scored and drove in a career-best 100 runs. He was second in the majors in hits (194) to teammate Freddie Freeman, and won his first career Silver Slugger Award, voted the best offensive shortstop in the National League by managers and coaches.

Turner finished 11th in NL MVP voting in 2022, after a fifth-place finish in 2021.

Turner struggled throughout in the postseason in his career, hitting just .228/.274/.287 through 2021. But in 2022, he was one of the few Dodgers hitters who performed up to par, collecting six hits in three games, including a double and two home runs, the latter one more than his total from his first 39 playoff games.

With Corey Seager entrenched at shortstop in 2021, Turner moved positions to second base over the final two months of the season and into the playoffs. Now, Turner follows Seager’s path out the door as a shortstop with a premium free agent contract.

Turner last season earned $21 million in his final year of salary arbitration eligibility. His new deal averages $27.3 million per year.

The range of several national outlets in predicting Turner’s free agent deal landed between seven and nine years, all at at least $30 million per season.

After declining the qualifying offer in November, the Dodgers will receive compensation in the form of a draft pick after the fourth round in 2023. Los Angeles will also receive a pick after the fourth round for Tyler Anderson signing with the Angels.

In our True Blue LA free agent crowdsource, 15 of 23 (65 percent) correctly picked the Phillies as Turner’s next destination. Five others picked the Cubs, one selected the Red Sox, and two optimistic souls thought he’d return to the Dodgers.

Turner is a career .302/.355/.487 with a 122 OPS+, 191 doubles, 124 home runs and 230 stolen bases in parts of eight seasons with the Nationals and Dodgers. He’s one of only four active players with at least 3,000 plate appearances with a career batting average above .300.

Turner turns 30 in June.