STARS ALIGN FOR EX-METS

It’s been a hit parade for Murphy, Turner since leaving Queens

MIAMI — The conversation was a little more grown up at the players’ hotel Sunday night. Daniel Murphy ran into Justin Turner and his fiancee. There were congratulations, hugs and talks of wedding plans. Monday, the two former Mets teammates found each other in the National League clubhouse in Marlins Park for the All-Star Game and the conversation fell right back to where it was four years ago.

“We found each other pretty quickly,” said Turner, “and we started talking hitting. I have a feeling that conversation is going to go on for the next two days.”

It picked up right where it left off four years ago, back when they were both Mets.

Two baseball junkies and cage rats, the former Mets have turned those hours of analysis and conversations into All-Star careers. Murphy, of course, was an AllStar as a Met in 2014, and is making his second consecutive appearance in the Midsummer Classic as a National. But Turner is making his All-Star debut after having been cut by the Mets three seasons ago. The third baseman for the Dodgers holds no grudges with the organization that released him.

“If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be here,” Turner said with a big smile, “I am in a good place.”

For both Turner and Murphy, good things have happened since they moved on from Flushing even if it was unwillingly at the time. The Mets offered Murphy a qualifying offer, but made it clear he was not in their long-term plans at second base.

He, of course, regularly terrorizes the Mets as a division rival. He turned a hot tear during the Mets’ 2015 World Series run into a three-year, $37.5 million deal with the Nationals.

The Mets released Turner after the 2013 season and added insult to injury by leaking that they felt he did not hustle as part of the reason.

In four years with the Mets covering 301 games, Turner hit .265 with eight home runs, 86 RBI and a .326 on-base percentage. The foundation was there for a very good player, Murphy said.

“Justin always made really good decisions at the pate. He swung at really good pitches,” Murphy said. “Now, it seems like he’s found a swing that is repeatable and dangerous when he gets in positive counts, which I always thought he was able to do. He is doing damage on pitches he’s hitting, when he doesn’t get a pitch to hit, he goes to first.

“It’s been special and really fun to watch him do this.”

It took a few more years for Turner to reshape his swing. He focuses more on fly balls and he has improved his defense, too. It has to be hard for some Mets fans to watch Turner dominating at third base this season with David Wright having not played in more than a year.

And Murphy said it was not too hard to imagine Turner here even back in their Mets days.

“I definitely would never have put anything like this beyond Justin,” Murphy said. “He was always such a baseball rat, always enjoyed talking the game, always working hard. Seems like the biggest thing was just finding a swing and a move for him that again was dangerous and repeatable.”

After being released, Turner signed a one-year deal with the Dodger and they committed to him for a four-year, $64 million deal to stay there. In four seasons with the Dodgers, Turner has hit .309 with 230 RBI and a .361 on-base percentage.

For Turner, the Dodgers were just the right place and the right time for him.

“I got to go home, I worked on my swing and everything,” Turner said. “It really worked out for me. It couldn’t have worked out any other way for me really that could have been better.”

People who know Turner said he matured as a person and a player after leaving the Mets and heading back to his native Southern California. The Dodgers were also a team that embraced Turner’s out-going personality in and outside the clubhouse.

He agreed that it’s where he needed to be. “It’s the right fit for me,” Turner said. Monday, Turner and Murphy were back together again, huddled on the National League side of the field for the home run derby chatting, laughing and talking. Hitting, old teammates, wedding plans and Murphy’s children were discussed, but their days as Mets is no longer topic they need to discuss.