This article is part of our Collette Calls series.
Paul Sporer and I were talking about him on The Sleeper and the Bust podcast recently and I made what seemed like a bold comparison for Turner. I said, statistically and skill-wise, he reminds me a lot of Starling Marte. Both are fast players who can hit for average. Until this season, Marte was even pushing 20 homers but has not hit the long ball this year whereas everyone else has. The thing is, Turner could be even better than Marte in the coming years.
Turner has 230 plate appearances at age 23 – an age where many players are in Double-A somewhere across the country. Marte also made his deubt in the bigs at age 23, and here is how their base level stats compare over the ~230 plate appearances of their careers:
| PLAYER | AGE | PA | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Marte | 23 | 229 | 4.4 | 26.6 | .275 | .317 | .436 |
| Turner | 23 | 230 | 4.3 | 22.2 | .323 | .352 | .507 |
Marte has maintained that low walk rate throughout his career and yet has a career .345
Paul Sporer and I were talking about him on The Sleeper and the Bust podcast recently and I made what seemed like a bold comparison for Turner. I said, statistically and skill-wise, he reminds me a lot of Starling Marte. Both are fast players who can hit for average. Until this season, Marte was even pushing 20 homers but has not hit the long ball this year whereas everyone else has. The thing is, Turner could be even better than Marte in the coming years.
Turner has 230 plate appearances at age 23 – an age where many players are in Double-A somewhere across the country. Marte also made his deubt in the bigs at age 23, and here is how their base level stats compare over the ~230 plate appearances of their careers:
| PLAYER | AGE | PA | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Marte | 23 | 229 | 4.4 | 26.6 | .275 | .317 | .436 |
| Turner | 23 | 230 | 4.3 | 22.2 | .323 | .352 | .507 |
Marte has maintained that low walk rate throughout his career and yet has a career .345 OBP because he puts the ball in play quite a bit and makes quality contact. Turner had a high walk rate in 2014 and 2015 as he hopscotched through the minor leagues but that has not been the case at the major league level. In truth, that has not been the case this year.
Last season, Turner only saw 44 plate appearances but was rather passive at the plate. He did make quite a bit of contact for a batter who struck out 27 percent of the time, but he swung well below the league average and rarely chased pitches out of the zone. All of these things are great skills, but perhaps Turner was too passive at the plate. In 2016, he has been a more aggressive swinger both overall and outside of the zone and has a crazy .415 BABIP.
One of the things that continues to impress with Turner is that despite hitting the ball harder and isn't sacrificing other skills. Often, we see players lose the ability to make contact when trying to hit the ball harder. In Turner's case, his hard contact rate has been on the rise in 2016 while his swinging strike rate has actually improved:
Whereas the Nationals once thought that Michael Taylor was their future centerfielder, it appears it may be Trea Turner's job for the taking in 2017. Ryan Zimmerman is locked at first and Daniel Murphy has second base, but the center-field depth chart opens up as the club likely will pass on tendering an offer to Ben Revere in arbitration as the fleet footed/oft-injured player Is getting expensive.
Turner has a .316/.380/.460 line as a minor leaguer over nearly 1,200 plate appearances and has a lofty .326/.354/.500 rate over 243 major league plate appearances. We, as fans, have been a bit spoiled in 2016 by some stellar rookie production as Turner, Corey Seager, Tyler Naquin and Aledmys Diaz each own at least a .300/.350/.500 slash line (min 150 PA). The last time four rookies did that in the same season was in 2006 when Stephen Drew, Ryan Theriot, Luke Scott and Chris Coste. That is not exactly a ringing endorsement, but this quartet is arguably more talented.
Gary Sanchez might be stealing all of the headlines lately with his monster start out of the gate, but the wiser long-term investment may be Turner, who will go into 2017 with 2B and OF eligibility and is fully capable of posting the type of season Marte is doing this year that has him valued as a $21 player in 12-team standard mixed leagues. Even Dusty Baker has to recognize youthful greatness like this and not urge the front office to chase some vet past his prime to steal playing time away from Turner.
