Well, I guess we’ll talk about Trea Turner struggling in his debut season with the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Trea Turner signed an 11-year, $300 million contract with the Phillies and to say the very least, he has struggled over the first few months of the 2023 season. 

The internet won’t shut up about it, which is fine, I guess. When you sign a player like Turner to a massive contract and he comes to Philadelphia as a career .300 hitter, you’d expect to get much more production out of the now-franchise shortstop. 

Obviously. 

And yes, of course I’ll post the World Baseball Classic stats compared to Turner’s that was posted all over social media late last week. 

Trea Turner: WBC vs Phillies

Oh. You want to suffer more?

Here’s that grand slam he hit in the World Baseball Classic that sent the USA into an absolute frenzy. 

Turner has been getting booed at Citizens Bank Park as of late, which at this point, is basically a right of passage for any Phillies player that comes to play in Philadelphia. 

Last night, after the Philadelphia Phillies fell to the Arizona Diamondback 6-3, Turner had this to say to reporters. 

“I’m honest with myself. I’ve sucked” – Trea Turner via NBC Sports Philly

Trea Turner is Trending in the Wrong Direction

Trea Turner has sucked. He’s batting just .256 with a .693 OPS on the season and has only hit four home runs and 11 RBI over 195 at-bats. 

Turner has struck out 55 times in his first 45 games with the Phillies which is the most he’s ever struck out in any 45-game stretch of his career. 

He’s chasing balls out of the zone (shoutout Nick Castellanos) at an alarming 37 percent, which is also the highest rate of his career. To put that in perspective Turner’s chase rate in 2021 was just 26 percent.

Last season, his chase rate increased to a career-worst 33 percent and again, this season it continues to trend in the wrong direction. 

Up until last night against the D-Backs, Turner went on a miserable 33 day stretch without getting a hit when the Phillies had runners in scoring position. During that span, he had 23 opportunities and struck out 11 times. 

Note: Turner broke that streak last night when he hit a slide off the plate into right field for a run-scoring single. 

No Reason for Concern…Yet

Even with Turner’s struggles, the fact remains that we are not even halfway through the 2023 MLB season and if you’ve been reading The Liberty Line, you already know that I am a firm believer that the official unofficial start to the season is June 1st. 

We have seen these types of struggles before.

Kyle Schwarber sucked over the first few months of his debut season with the Phillies. 

Last season, he batted .185 with 11 home runs and 23 RBI through the end of May before catching fire in June, batting .272 with 12 home runs and 27 RBI. As we all know, Schwarber finished the 2022 leading the National League with 46 home runs during the regular season while posting a .827 OPS.

Point being, there is plenty of time to turn things around not only for Trea Turner, but for the entire Phillies team. 

After last night’s loss, the Phillies fell to 22-25 on the season and are currently in fourth place in the NL East standings behind the Atlanta Braves (29-18), New York Mets (25-23) and the Miami Marlins (24-24).

Plenty of baseball left.

I know everything seems miserable right now and over the past year, Philly sports have crushed our souls to dust, but there’s still plenty of hope for meaningless baseball this summer and fall so just roll with the punches until we get into the dog days of summer when things tend to start clicking. 

Matt Strahm will get the start tonight Ryne Nelson. 6:40 first pitch at The Bank.

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