Trea Turner returned to the starting lineup in Wednesday’s series finale against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, with manager Don Mattingly returning him to the leadoff spot. It was his first time batting leadoff since his season-long slump resulted in Turner being dropped to the No. 2 spot on May 27th.
Turner had a nice game in a losing effort, going 3-for-5 with a run scored in the Phils’ 12-4 loss. But there is much work to do for the veteran shortstop who has spent the entirety of the 2026
season mired in another massive slump.
Slumps are one thing. All players go through them. Great players are able to avoid prolonged slumps. They usually don’t have ones that swallow up half a season.
But once again, Turner is in the midst of an epic slump that has already decimated nearly half of the 2026 season. Coming into Wednesday, Turner’s .595 OPS was 2nd-worst among 22 qualified MLB shortstops. Worse than that, it ranked 151st out of 156 qualified position players in baseball. One year after winning the NL batting title as the only player in the league with an average over .300, his .216 average ranked 139th (it rose to .223 after Wednesday’s 3-hit effort).
Turner is making $300 million. I sure don’t like bringing up that price tag, because all players, now matter how much they’re making, are allowed to slump. But that salary is an indication of just how much the Phillies depend on Turner to be an impact player at the top of the lineup.
There are some who believe Turner gets a free pass in Philadelphia. Perhaps that stems from “The Ovation” he received in August of 2023 when, in midst of almost identical struggles, the fanbase decided to support him with a standing ovation as he came to plate for his first at-bat against the Kansas City Royals.
As he walked up to the plate, he was hitting .236 in 484 plate appearances, with a .289 OBP and .367 slugging percentage. Following the ovation, he hit .339 and put up a 1.069 OPS over his last 47 games.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the fanbase is going to be able to go to that well a second time.
Patience for Turner is running short, but really, there is no alternative other than to keep playing him at shortstop everyday and wait for the turnaround.
At the moment, Trea is simply striking out too much, 22.7% of his PAs right now, a career high. Last year it was 16.7%. His 38.5% hard-hit rate is far below his 42.1% from a season ago, and he’s chasing pitches out of the strike zone at a 36.0% clip, again far higher than last season’s 31.1%. The plate discipline has been a major issue.
His Baseball Savant page is a sea of blue.
Resiliency when down in the count has been the biggest difference between Trea Turner 2025 and Trea Turner 2026.
- After 0-1 (2025): .741 OPS
- After 0-1 (2026): .334 OPS
- After 0-2 (2025): .636 OPS
- After 0-2 (2026): .255 OPS
- After 1-2 (2025): .592 OPS
- After 1-2 (2026): .240 OPS
- After 2-2 (2025): .747 OPS
- After 2-2 (2026): .385 OPS
Virtually every player, no matter their skill, does worse when down in the count. But Turner’s inability to rally with two strikes is a key difference between this year and last year.
It is not fair to say his tenure in Philadelphia has been a failure. Far from it. Since 2023, Turner is 7th among all MLB shortstops in fWAR (14.7). His .277 batting average is tied for 5th, his 69 HRs are tied for 10th, he’s 4th in runs scored (325) and 7th in OPS (.769).
If you had told me that’s where Turner would rank among qualified MLB shortstops at nearly the midway point of his fourth season with the team, I would have been pleased with it.
But no one is pleased right now because once again, Turner is mired in an epic slump that he appears nowhere close to figuring out.
