Last season, Brice Turang showed us that he could be an excellent baseball player—a legit star, even—while still being a below-average hitter. In 2024, Turang was awarded the Platinum Glove as the best fielder in the National League, and he was one of the league’s best baserunners, both as a base stealer (50 in 56 attempts) and in a more general sense (he ranked sixth in the league in FanGraphs’ Baserunning Runs Above Average stat).
Turang showed major improvement at the plate in 2024, but his starting
position was so bad that he was still well below-average at the plate. In 2023, Turang was arguably the worst full-time hitter in baseball; he hit just .218/.285/.300 and had only 18 extra-base hits in 448 plate appearances. Those numbers jumped to .254/.316/.349 in 2024—real improvement, including a 26-point jump in OPS+ (from 61 to 87), but still not great.
Through the first four months of 2025, it looked like Turang was making another modest improvement, which was welcome news; he’s has been so good at those other skills that even if he could be a league-average hitter, he could find himself in the running for best second baseman in the league. At the end of July, Turang was hitting .271/.339/.363, giving him a 35-point jump in OPS. Not quite the 80-point jump he made from 2023 to 2024, but still a meaningful bump. He had six homers already in 441 plate appearances, one fewer than the seven he’d hit in 619 plate appearances in 2024. There were whispers of batting practice showcases that weren’t yet making it into game action.
Then August started. The Brice Turang that we saw at the plate in August was really unlike any version of Brice Turang that we ever could have expected to see. Go back and read scouting reports from before he made it to the majors, and you’ll see things like “potential for around 15 home runs per season” (MLB Pipeline, pre-2022) and “close to average peak pop” (FanGraphs, end of 2022).
Last month, Turang hit .343/.398/.694 in 28 games and 118 plate appearances. He had 10 homers, and hit another on the first day of September. He added six doubles and a triple. The only player who had a higher OPS than Turang in August was Giancarlo Stanton, a behemoth power hitter.
Despite what he’s shown us, it is still unlikely that Turang will ever hit .340 for a whole season, or hit 50 home runs. But after his August outburst, Turang’s slash line for the season is up to .289/.356/.442, which translates to a 121 OPS+. Even if he just maintains that for the rest of the season rather than raising it further, a 120 OPS+ for a player who has Turang’s ability in the field and on the bases is no joke.
Turang’s defense and baserunning aren’t as good in 2025 as they were in 2024, but players who can put together that whole package and sustain it for a meaningful number years aren’t just star players: they’re Hall of Fame-level players. This was an imperfect experiment, but out of curiosity, I looked to the history of baseball. There have only been 36 seasons in the entire long history of the game in which a middle infielder had an OPS+ of 120 or higher, stole at least 30 bases, and had at least 1.5 defensive WAR (which Turang is on pace to surpass this season for the third straight year). Of those:
- 21 are by Hall of Famers (a group including Honus Wagner, Joe Morgan, Jackie Robinson, Hughie Jennings, Eddie Collins, George Davis, Craig Biggio, Ryne Sandberg, and Frankie Frisch)
- One is by Alex Rodríguez, who obviously would be in the Hall of Fame if not for, you know
- Two are by active future Hall of Famers (Mookie Betts and Francisco Lindor)
- Three are by Jack Glasscock and one by Bill Dahlen, who are probably the two most deserving 19th-century players who aren’t in the Hall of Fame (and who I believe should be)
That leaves just eight seasons by players who aren’t either Hall of Famers, should be Hall of Famers, will be Hall of Famers, or would be Hall of Famers if they weren’t cheaters. Those players aren’t too shabby either:
- Snuffy Stirnweiss, who was the best player in the American League in 1944 and 1945 when most of the league’s stars were serving in the military, did it in both of those seasons
- Chuck Knoblauch, another steroid user, did it in his monster 1996 season
- Ray Chapman, the man who was famously killed by a fastball that hit him in the head (which made it so pitchers could no longer use dirty baseballs), did it in 1917
- Three former Brewers! Though none while they were with the club: Dickie Thon (in 1983), Julio Franco (1990), and Jean Segura (2016)
- Wander Franco, another player who could have been on a Hall of Fame path, did it in 2023
- Two solid old-timers, Hub Collins in 1890 and Al Bridwell in 1909
You may have noticed that a lot of these seasons happened a long time ago. Of these 36 seasons, 23 of them occurred in 1945 or earlier. Only four happened in the 21st century. And by the nature of what these players do, these seasons tend to be massive in terms of value; 25 of 36 were worth at least seven WAR, which is about where a player becomes an MVP candidate. 16 were more than eight WAR, and 10 were more than nine.
Turang hasn’t actually had this season yet; he’ll probably get to 1.5 dWAR this year, and he’s got a decent chance to maintain his 120 OPS+ but he’ll need to stay hot. The 30 stolen bases are less likely—he’s only got 22 at the moment, and he’s been caught eight times, which isn’t great. But I’m looking at the past two seasons of Turang and thinking about what the ceiling of this type of player could be. If he can put it all together at the same time—Gold Glove level defense with premium baserunning (both of which he had in 2024) and solidly above average offense (which he has in 2025)—he could become a legitimate MVP candidate. He is not yet 26 years old.
Would we have ever thought that we might one day say that about Brice Turang before this last month? I don’t think so. Turang was certainly not a nothing prospect; he was a first-round pick and made a couple top-100 lists before the 2021 season. But even the sunniest projections thought he’d be a plus defender who was about a league-average hitter. He’s shown us that he’s capable of being not just a “plus” defender but one of the best in the league, and that he’s capable of being not just an average offensive player but a good one.
It’s amazing how far he’s come since his 2023 season. I’m trying not to get carried away, but for those who are curious, if you combine the 50 stolen bases and league-leading 2.8 dWAR that Turang had in 2024 with the 120 OPS+ he has in 2025?
That has happened one time in the history of baseball, at any position. Eddie Collins, the Hall of Famer who had over 120 career WAR, did it in 1910. That’s it.
