The Phillies have been rolling again, but Trea Turner hasn’t exactly been riding the wave with them.
Philadelphia has won nine straight, capped by Sunday’s wild 6-4 comeback over the St. Louis Cardinals after erasing a four-run deficit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Then came a series-opening loss to the Seattle Mariners. Even with that setback, the club is still shaping up at the right time with the playoffs about six weeks away, thanks to an offense that has woken up and pitching that has looked a little sharper lately.
Turner, though, has been a different story. He went 0 for 4 on Monday and has driven in just two runs over his last 12 games, which is part of why he landed on Bleacher Report’s list of baseball’s 10 biggest disappointments this season. Kerry Miller included Turner among the honorable mentions, pointing to slippage on both sides of the ball.
"He has 17 home runs and 17 stolen bases, but he's nowhere near the consistent hitter that he used to be," Miller wrote. "And after putting forth a great season with his glove in 2025, he has been one of the worst defensive shortstops in 2026."
That’s a stark fall for a player who was so productive just a year ago. Turner led the National League with a .304 batting average in 2025 and posted an .812 OPS. He was an All-Star as recently as 2024, and before arriving in Philadelphia, he put up 100 RBIs and 21 home runs for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022.
This season has looked much rougher. Turner is batting .243 overall.
July gave the impression he might be finding his stride, with a .287 average, 15 RBIs and seven homers, but August has been a grind so far at .220. The defense has been an even bigger issue: he is tied for the major league lead in errors with 20.
There has also long been criticism of Turner’s performance in high-leverage spots, even though he was a major part of the Washington Nationals’ 2019 World Series run. At 33, the conversation has shifted toward whether he’s entering the back end of his career.
Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly was asked about Turner’s approach on Saturday, and he didn’t sound overly alarmed. As Colin Newby reported, Mattingly kept the focus on the plan Turner is trying to follow.
“We haven't really talked about getting him in the zone,” Mattingly said. “We've really talked just about sticking with the game plan, being aggressive to that, and until you have to get outside of that.
So that leads to like swinging at what you want, not just anything. I think Trea's always been a little bit of chase.
When he's not feeling good, there's more chase. When he's feeling good, there's less chase.
And so usually it goes with how he's feeling up there at that point.”
With the Braves still in first place in the National League East and the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers looming, the Phillies need Turner to be part of the solution down the stretch. They can’t afford for him to disappear at the plate or become a liability in the field. If Philadelphia is going to chase its first World Series title since 2008, Turner is going to have to look a lot more like the player the Phillies thought they were getting.
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Phillies Bullpen Has A Problem They Need Orion Kerkering To Fix
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Kerkering remains one of the relievers the Phillies are counting on most as they try to keep their run going down the stretch, which is why his recent stretch matters so much. When a bullpen piece like that is not getting the job done, it can change how a manager pieces together the final outs, and Philadelphia does not have much margin for error if it wants to stay on track. [Read more 🡒]