Turner receives day off following rough nights vs. O's

Turner receives day off following rough nights vs. O's

July 26th, 2023

PHILADELPHIA -- Maybe a reset works.

did not start Wednesday night against the Orioles at Citizens Bank Park, following two rough nights against Baltimore. Turner went 0-for-3 with one strikeout, two errors and one ejection on Monday. He went 0-for-4 with one strikeout Tuesday, hearing more and more boos as the night went on.

It was the first time Turner had not started since May 20.

“Just a day off, just to give him a little break,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “As I said yesterday, I like doing it the day before a day off or the day after a day off, so they get two full days. He’ll be back out there Friday.”

Thomson declined to say if Turner will hit second upon his return.

“We’ll talk about it,” he said.

Turner, 30, signed an 11-year, $300 million contract in December. From 2018-22, he had 24.9 WAR, according to FanGraphs, which was the seventh-best mark in baseball behind Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, José Ramírez, Francisco Lindor and Alex Bregman.

But that dynamic talent has not consistently shown itself in the Phillies’ lineup this season.

Turner is batting .245 with 10 home runs, 34 RBIs and a .681 OPS in 448 plate appearances. He entered the season with a career .849 OPS. Turner is swinging at a career-high 36.8 percent of pitches out of the strike zone (career average is 28.5 percent). He is missing a career-high 29.9 percent of the pitches he swings at (career average is 23.8 percent). He is hitting a career-low .194 against four-seam fastballs. He has not hit less than .282 against them since 2015.

Everybody in the organization believes Turner is pressing.

“Oh yeah,” Thomson said. “No doubt. Usually that’s a lot of what goes into slumps or tough times. Guys just try to do too much.

“Every day I think he’s going to get back to being who he is. It’s going to happen. I’m sure of it. It’s just a matter of when. I think as a group this offense [where] at some point it seems like we’re just going to explode at some point. We’re just a lot better than what we’re hitting right now.”