Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES: Can we stan Trea Turner a little bit today? He’s got the speed. He’s got that Smooth Criminal slide. He’s got the pop in his bat ( and two grand slams in the last homestand!). And as of today, he’s got the NL batting crown for 2021. He becomes the first Dodger to lead the league in hitting nearly 50 years. The last Dodger to accomplish that feat was Tommy Davis, way back in 1963, when he won the second of two straight batting titles.
Obtained in the Max Scherzer deal, Trea Turner has got to be the greatest Lucky Strike extra in the history of the trade deadline. Since coming to Los Angeles (after contracting Covid mid-season, mind you), the guy has been a magnificent offensive performer. He’s hit a mere .338 since joining the club with an OPS of .950. Toss in ten home runs and eleven stolen bases in just two months and you get an idea what an impact Trea has had on a Dodger lineup that quite frankly was scuffling a little bit in late July when the deal was struck.
As for the batting crown, it turned out not to have been even that close. For a hot minute, it looked like Trea’s former teammate Juan Soto might make a hard charge in September for the top spot in the NL, but in the end Soto fizzled a little bit in the last week of the season. Of course, it didn’t help his case much that everybody walked the guy a couple of times every game. On the other hand, Trea was just heating up as September wound down. Over the last fifteen games, Turner hit a blistering .419, and by the final day of the season the outcome of the race was no longer in doubt. Turner stood alone on top with a .328 average. His closest competitors were Soto, at .313, and then Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos at .309.
Just for good measure, Turner adding the NL stolen base crown to his resume this year as well, as his 32 swiped bags just beat the Cardinals’ Tommy Edman, who had 32. The overall MLB leader, ironically, will end up winning nothing this year. As Starling Marte stole some of his 47 bases in each league, and as such is not the champion of either. So it goes, Starling. At least you got a cool first name.
And, dare we say it, Trea’s final month of the year has put him into the conversation for MVP of the National League. It will still probably end up going to another former teammate Bryce Harper, but the case for Turner can definitely be made. The other candidate Fernando Tatis Jr. seemed to be a shoe-in, but his numbers went down about as fast as the Padres’ playoff hopes in the final two weeks, so I doubt he’ll get it this time around. In fact, if you look at the “old school” metrics, Turner, Tatis, Juan Soto, and Harper look pretty close:
Bryce Harper: .309/35 HR/84 RBI
Fernando Tatis: .282/42 HR/97 RBI
Juan Soto: .313/29 HR/95 RBI
Trea Turner: .328/28 HR/77 RBI
In the absence of a clear favorite, you could make the case for any of those guys. The advanced metrics favor Harper a bit, but not by that much. Anyway you slice it, Trea Turner has been an elite performer this year.
And he’s all ours for another year at least.
