A big part of the Phillies recent surge has been the play of their star shortstop. Trea Turner has been scorching hot in the month of August, as he’s hitting .378 with a .994 OPS across 19 games played. Those numbers are even better over the last two weeks, as Turner is hitting a blistering .462 over his last 15 games with two home runs, 14 RBIs, and six stolen bases. He was a wrecking ball in the Mariners series, going 9-16 with 7 RBIs and two steals. Turner collected his fourth career five hit day
in Wednesday’s dismantling of the Mariners, his first with the Phillies and first overall since 2020.
Entering play on Wednesday, Turner led all National League shortstops in fWAR and was eighth overall among all hitters. He’s second in the NL batting title race behind the Dodgers’ Will Smith who leads Turner by .005 points. Despite narrowly trailing Smith, Turner still leads all of baseball in hits with 158, just ahead of the Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette who has 157. The next closest NL player to Turner is Manny Machado who has 142. Turner’s 31 steals are tied for third most in the NL and he only trails leader Oneil Cruz by three bags.
All of this goes to say that this is the version of Trea Turner the Phillies were hoping for when they signed him to an 11 year, $300M contract before the 2023 season. He’s been dynamic at the plate, setting the tone out of the leadoff spot and causing havoc on the bases with his speed. Turner has also cleaned up most of his fielding issues from the last few seasons, as his 7 errors are tied for the fifth fewest among shortstops and his 14 OAA are fourth best. He’s been worth only 1 DRS, but that’s a dramatic improvement from his -12 and -14 marks from 2023 and 2024 respectively.
If the season ended today, Turner would likely receive some MVP votes. He wouldn’t finish top three, as Shohei Ohtani, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and teammate Kyle Schwarber are the consensus top three as we sit here in August. But it wouldn’t be hard to envision Turner perhaps entering the discussion if he keeps his current pace of play up for the remaining month plus of the season.
So, is Trea Turner a dark horse MVP candidate? Or is he likely to just receive down ballot votes? Can a strong finish to the year catapult him into the top three? Or does the presence of Schwarber such the oxygen from his case? What would Turner’s final tallies have to be for him to actually come away with the award?
