Background and career
Trea Vance Turner (born June 30, 1993) is an American professional baseball shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played for the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. At the international level, he plays for the United States national team. Turner played college baseball at North Carolina State. The San Diego Padres selected him in the first round of the 2014 MLB draft and traded him to the Washington Nationals in 2015. Though developed as a shortstop, Turner debuted in the major leagues in 2016 as Washington's starting center fielder and returned to shortstop for the 2017 season. Traded to the Dodgers during the 2021 season, he became a free agent after the 2022 season and signed an 11-year, $300 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. Turner is a three-time MLB All-Star. He has led the National League in batting average twice and twice in stolen bases. Turner won a Silver Slugger Award in 2022 and has hit for the cycle three times, making him the fourth MLB player to accomplish the feat, after Bob Meusel, Babe Herman, and Adrián Beltré; Christian Yelich later became a member of the exclusive club as well. Turner set an MLB record in 2023 by stealing the most bases in a season without being caught (30 stolen bases, 0 caught stealing). He won the 2019 World Series with the Washington Nationals.
Turner attended Park Vista Community High School in Lake Worth, Florida, where he played for his school's baseball team. Turner was lightly recruited by college programs, only receiving scholarship offers from North Carolina State University and Florida Atlantic University. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Turner in the 20th round, with the 602nd overall selection, of the 2011 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft. Turner opted to play college baseball for the NC State Wolfpack baseball team in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. As a freshman in 2012, Turner switched positions from shortstop to third baseman. That year, he had a .336 batting average and a .432 on-base percentage and recorded 57 stolen bases while only being caught stealing four times. His 57 steals were more than the team totals of 158 Division I teams, and set an NC State record. He also tied the ACC record for steals in one game with five. Turner was named to the All-Tournament Team in the 2012 ACC Tournament. In 2013, Turner had a .378 batting average with seven home runs, 41 runs batted in (RBIs), and 27 stolen bases. He was named to the All-ACC first team, and was named a second team All-American by Perfect Game and a third team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Baseball America. He was named a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the best shortstop in NCAA's Division I. That summer, Turner played for the United States national collegiate baseball team. As a junior in 2014, he hit .321 with eight home runs and 26 stolen bases. After the season, he was named the winner of the Brooks Wallace Award.
Aaron Fitt of Baseball America considered Turner a likely first-round choice in the 2014 MLB draft. The San Diego Padres selected Turner in the first round, with the 13th overall selection. He signed on June 13, receiving a $2.9 million signing bonus. He made his professional debut three days later with the Eugene Emeralds of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. After he batted .228 in 26 games for Eugene, the Padres promoted him to the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Class A Midwest League, where he batted .369 in 46 games. The Padres assigned him to play for the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League after the regular season. On December 19, 2014, the Padres agreed to trade Turner to the Washington Nationals as a player to be named later as part of a three-team trade, in which the Padres traded Jake Bauers, Burch Smith, and René Rivera to the Tampa Bay Rays and Joe Ross to Washington, Washington traded Steven Souza and Travis Ott to Tampa Bay, and Tampa traded Wil Myers to San Diego. Turner stayed with the Padres organization until mid-June 2015 because he was ineligible to be traded for a year after being drafted. In 2015, Turner reported to spring training with the Padres as a non-roster invitee, The Padres assigned him to the San Antonio Missions of the Class AA Texas League. He hit .322 with five home runs and 35 RBIs with 11 stolen bases for San Antonio. Meanwhile, MLB changed its rules so that players can be traded in the year they are drafted after the World Series concludes.
On June 14, 2015, the Padres sent Turner to the Nationals to complete the trade made in December, and the Nationals assigned him to the Harrisburg Senators of the Class AA Eastern League. After playing ten games for Harrisburg, the Nationals promoted Turner to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League. Turner represented the Nationals at the 2015 All-Star Futures Game in July. On August 21, 2015, the Nationals promoted Turner to the major leagues. He made his MLB debut that night. Turner went nine at-bats before collecting his first MLB hit on September 3, beating out a ground ball to reach first base safely. He finished the 2015 season with a .225 batting average through 40 at-bats with one home run and one RBI.
In spring training in 2016, Turner competed with Danny Espinosa and Stephen Drew to be the Nationals starting shortstop. The Nationals optioned Turner to Syracuse at the end of spring training. Turner was called up on June 3, 2016, for a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. He went 3-for-3 with a walk in his first game of the season in the major leagues, playing second base and shortstop. He was optioned back to Syracuse at the end of the series, as first baseman Ryan Zimmerman was reactivated from paternity leave. With Michael A. Taylor and Ben Revere turning in lackluster offensive performances as the Nationals' primary center fielders and Espinosa performing well as the team's everyday shortstop, Turner began getting starts in center field with the Nationals midway through the season. He made his first appearance in center field on June 27; he had no previous experience as an outfielder. The Nationals recalled Turner in July, and he made his first major league start in center field on July 26. Turner won the National League's (NL) Rookie of the Month Award for his performance in August 2016, hitting .357 on the month with five home runs and 11 stolen bases. He finished second in NL Rookie of the Year Award balloting to Corey Seager despite playing in only 73 of the 162 games that season.
In 2017, Turner moved back to his natural position of shortstop after the Nationals traded starting shortstop Danny Espinosa to the Los Angeles Angels and acquired Adam Eaton to play center field. On April 9, Turner was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to tightness in his hamstring. On April 25, Turner hit for the cycle against the Colorado Rockies. The following night, Turner came a triple shy of back-to-back cycles. Turner stole four bases against the New York Mets in a June 18 game to set a personal best and tie Marquis Grissom (in 1992 for the Montreal Expos against the San Francisco Giants) for the franchise record. He tied the record again with four steals off the Chicago Cubs in just three innings on June 27, helping the Nationals to a team record of seven stolen bases in the game. Two days later, Turner was hit on the right wrist by a fastball from Cubs reliever Pedro Strop and suffered a non-displaced fracture, sending him to the 10-day disabled list for the second time in the season. Turner told The Washington Post's Thomas Boswell it was the first time since he was 12 that he had broken a bone, though he claimed the injury "didn't feel that bad" after Strop's pitch hit him, and he remained in the game for an inning and a half before being lifted for a defensive substitute. The Nationals purchased the contract of infielder Adrián Sánchez from the Class-AAA Syracuse Chiefs to take Turner's place on the roster. Turner was activated from the disabled list on August 28 and made his return to the lineup the following night against the Miami Marlins.
