Trea Turner

The first shortstop domino has fallen, as the former National and Dodger signs an 11-year, #300M deal with the Phillies.

That could mean a better bench and bullpen, areas of major weakness in Philly in the recent past. Even with regression of his speed, he’s going to hit for average and rack up hits, like a late-career version of Pete Rose, while playing in the middle infield. As it turns out, the Phillies used the Bryce Harper model to identify a player they coveted, and wanted to sign for the rest of his career. The end result was a 13-year, $330M deal that essentially made Harper a Phillie for the rest of his career, and saved the club a little from an AAV perspective, allowing them to surround him with better players over the years. Turner doesn’t hit the baseball all that hard, he’s a good but not great defensive shortstop who has routinely been mentioned as a candidate for a shift to 2B over the years, and his plate discipline is quite ordinary. Thing is, once his speed begins to desert him, or least drift toward the average range, all of that good stuff goes away, and homers and walks aren’t just going to emerge from the ether to replace them.