Philadelphia Phillies Star Should Run More This Season

If there's any one player that should run the basepaths more for the Philadelphia Phillies its Trea Turner.

No player in Major League Baseball should run more in 2024 than Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner.

At least that’s the case that MLB.com is making.

The site recently produced a piece about “10 players who should run more in 2024,” spotlighting 10 players the site believes, well, should.

The idea is that with the pitch clock, larger bases and a growing emphasis on speed in the game teams will seek to run more now that they’re more comfortable with the rule changes.

The thing is, Turner looked plenty comfortable last season.

While Turner came out of the gate sluggishly on offense, it didn’t impact his baserunning or his ability to steal bases. Had his bat come around sooner he could have been a 30/30 player last season.

He ended up with 26 home runs and 30 stolen bases. Now, Turner has always been productive as a base stealer. He has 260 for his career. He’s stolen at least 30 bases six times and has led the National League in the category twice.

But he’s never done what he did last season with the Phillies — perfection. Turner swiped 30 bases and he was never caught.

Perfection isn’t necessary in 2024. But with his elite speed on the bases — is 30.3 feet per second sprint speed was in the top five in the Majors, per MLB — there’s a chance he could approach his career high of 46, which he sent in 2017 with Washington.

Turner would love nothing more than to get his bat going in the first half of the season too. In spite of his slump at the plate he finished with a respectable slash line of .266/.320/.459/.778 with 76 RBI.