Dodgers News: Trea Turner Battled the Hurt of LA Not Pursuing Him in Free Agency
Former Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner is in the midst of his return to Dodger Stadium this week. After a year and a half with LA, Turner signed a massive 11-year, $300 million deal to join the Philadelphia Phillies.
It was long expected that Turner would prefer a return to the East Coast when he hit free agency. Turner was drafted by the Padres and traded to the Nationals shortly thereafter — and Washington is where he spent the first seven-and-a-half years of his career. Then, the Dodgers added him at the 2021 trade deadline, and many expected he’d want to head back east at the end of 2022.
When Turner signed with the Phillies, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. He was linked to them all year long, and it appeared that he really wanted to be there.
Turner even turned down a larger offer from the West Coast’s Padres to sign with Philadelphia. So, it was assumed that the Dodgers weren’t really in consideration.
That story has now been shot down.
Ahead of Turner’s return to Dodger Stadium, he was asked about those contract negotiations and his decision to go to Philadelphia. He had a much different story than the one we all assumed (per Jack Harris of the LA Times).
“From the conversations I had,” Turner said, “they told me they would be there in free agency.”
However, Turner made it sound like they were not.
“You’re like: ‘Man, I just played there. Did they not want me?’” Turner said. “But I don’t think that’s necessarily fair either. Like I keep saying, it’s the nature of the business. It just didn’t work out. You want that two-way street, you want that love, you could say. I think the relationships that I built were very good for me, and I enjoyed it.”
If this is the truth — and I can’t imagine Turner would be lying here — this is a much different story than what we thought. Not only was Turner considering a return to the Dodgers, but it sounds like the Dodgers weren’t.
Maybe the Dodgers had the same assumption that Turner wanted to return to the East Coast — but if they felt strongly about bringing him back, they for sure would have tried their hardest. Based on what Turner is saying, they didn’t try at all.
Turner was an integral part of the Dodgers’ dominance, but you can’t blame them for not wanting to partake in those massive contracts the shortstops were getting this offseason. The Phillies are going to be paying Turner through his age-40 season, and that is never the kind of contract the Dodgers like to give out.
Turner is off to a slow start this season, although that’s sure to change at some point. The Dodgers’ struggles at shortstop have definitely made his loss feel greater, but when Gavin Lux returns next year — and the Dodgers aren’t paying their shortstop hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade — they’re sure to feel better about their decision.
