Trea Turners revival: Over 26 days, Phillies star has emphatically swung his season

June 28, 2024

PHILADELPHIA — Before Trea Turner heard the coordinated cheers and saw people standing for him, it was quiet. It was 27 days ago. His season had reached its lowest point, so he went to the batting cage. He swung until midnight, with few interruptions, because no one would tell him how to do this. Turner listened to advice from every corner of his professional and personal life. There is no handbook on how to escape a career-worst spiral.

Nick Castellanos had showered and dressed that night at loanDepot Park in Miami. He headed for the exit when he realized Turner was still in the cage.

“You’re one of the best players in the world, don’t forget it!” Castellanos yelled.

Two days later, Turner smacked a run-scoring single. The day after that, he crushed a three-run homer. He’s hitting .356/.394/.690 since Aug. 4 — the day Phillies fans cheered a slumping star. The Phillies have played 17 games at Citizens Bank Park since that day and Turner has a hit in every single one of them. He is the first Phillies hitter with a 17-game hitting streak at home in 12 years.

On Monday, 26 days after that night in Miami, Castellanos reclined in the back of the Phillies clubhouse with Kyle Schwarber. They shared a drink to celebrate the team’s 16th win this month — 6-4 over the Angels. Turner followed a public relations staffer to the middle of the room to discuss his second two-homer game of August with reporters. He’s saved his season.

He's ours 🫶#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/yUQLuJgf2d

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 29, 2023

The Phillies are hurtling toward another October of postseason baseball. When Turner was at his lowest, his teammates said the best way they could support him was to carry him to October. That’s when everything matters; whatever happened before it is irrelevant.

Then, Turner arrived.

“It started with the fans getting behind him,” Castellanos said. “I think him hearing the cheers and all that support definitely took some weight off of his shoulders. Honestly, I think everything follows from that. Right? For a player to play at his best, he has to be in a relaxed, confident mindset. Very rarely do you get peak performance from somebody who is pressing or trying way too hard.”

Schwarber nodded.

“The first part, I think, is cool with the fans,” Schwarber said. “But my biggest thing is, when I was coming up and I had the older guys, they always said, ‘Look at the back of the baseball card.’ That’s who that guy is. Look at the back of Trea’s baseball card.”

“No doubt,” Castellanos said. “It’s a good baseball card.”

“It’s a great baseball player,” Schwarber said.

“It’s a nice baseball card,” Castellanos said.

“It’s a great baseball card,” Schwarber said.

“If it was a Pokémon card,” Castellanos said, “it would be a shiny card. It would be a holographic card.”

“Yeah,” Schwarber said, laughing. “That.”

Trea Turner throws to first base to record the final out in Monday’s win. (Eric Hartline / USA Today)

There hasn’t been a great explanation for how Turner has produced this month. “Not chasing,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said last week and, although Turner has cut down on his strikeouts this month, he’s swinging at pitches out of the zone at about the same rate as before.

Months ago, Turner lamented how he was missing his pitches to hit. He slugged .413 on fastballs in the zone before Aug. 4. He’s crushed them to a .697 slugging percentage since. He hit a changeup for a solo homer in the first inning Monday then smashed a slider for a two-run shot in the fifth.

“He’s just being Trea,” Thomson said Monday. “You know?”

Maybe that’s the best explanation. Turner often asked for extended work in the batting cage with Kevin Long, the team’s hitting coach, when he struggled. Swinging through it was Turner’s therapy, and he would not admit to having a mental block caused by the prolonged slump.

Everyone around him could sense it.

“He hears the boos,” Long said July 24, 10 days before Turner heard the cheers. “He hears people saying, ‘What are you swinging at?’ And he said in the past that would never affect him. And now he hears it and he’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I shouldn’t have.’ He always blew it off before. He goes, ‘I need to get back to that mentality. I’m not perfect, nor am I ever going to be.’ And that’s kind of what he’s at.”

The fans lifted him. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

“I think I said it a month ago: The fan base is going to be really happy that they got that player for that many years,” Schwarber said, referencing Turner’s 11-year contract. “Because he’s a generational talent. It’s not like, ‘Hey, he’s going to go hit 30 to 40 (homers) a year.’ This guy is a guy who is going to make things happen with his bat, with his speed, with his defense. That’s the guy who he is. He’s a great hitter, too. He could hit 30 homers. He could hit 30. But he’s going to be a guy who is going to be a dynamic player and everyone’s seeing that. This is who he is. And this is the way he’s going to be for a long time. And it’s really cool to see.”

Phillies fans give Trea Turner a standing ovation on Aug. 4. (Bill Streicher / USA Today)

It has a unifying effect. The Phillies have set a franchise record for homers in a month this August, so it’s been a joint effort as they’ve taken a four-game lead atop the National League wild-card standings. But they saw how Turner worked behind the scenes and they felt his pain with every failure stacked upon failure. Turner’s rise helps everyone.

“When you see that, momentum’s a real thing,” Schwarber said. “You know? We’re all going at the same time right now and it’s fun to see. It’s fun to do. It’s fun to keep going for as long as you can. We’re getting toward the latter part of the year. We’re pushing for every single thing that we need.”

After Turner finished that late-night hitting session in Miami, Thomson told his $300 million shortstop that he’d bat eighth later that day. But the manager, even when Turner was at his worst, insisted the optimal lineup had Turner batting second. He moved back to that spot Aug. 20. He’s been there for eight straight games now. He’s played better defense. Everything is connected.

“He’s a combination of on-base and slug,” Thomson said. “So, if he slugs, we’re putting up points. If he gets on base, then you’ve got the slug right behind him too. It makes the lineup very dangerous when he’s doing what he’s doing right now.”

Things are looking up for Trea Turner and the Phillies. (Eric Hartline / USA Today)

Turner is not going to have the season the Phillies expected him to have. He is his own harshest critic and part of reaching this newfound happiness was accepting that one swing could not change what happened for four months.

But now, it’s a distant memory. Turner will go into another cold streak and he’ll be able to remember what success in a Phillies uniform feels like. He can tap into it. He knows October baseball is less than five weeks away and, by the time it arrives, there’s a good chance he’ll be hitting second for a team trying to defend its NL title.

“Every day when you get Trea Turner out on the baseball field is a great day,” Schwarber said, “because he can bring something dynamic every day.”

It’s been an incredible 26 days.

(Top photo: Eric Hartline / USA Today)

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