Turner’s possible payday skyrocketing

The shortstop has been dominant for defending champions

Back in late February, on the concrete patio of the Washington Nationals’ spring training facility, here was the most pressing matter in this tiny sliver of West Palm Beach, Fla.: The Nationals have a track record of giving big money to pitchers and letting homegrown position players walk. Trea Turner, leaning back in a chair, lost in a critical thought or two, was asked why they would break the mold for him.

Then Turner flipped the equation. It’s hard to imagine contract talks before the novel coronavirus pandemic began, in the same way it’s hard to imagine baseball with fans, or buying groceries with no mask on. But what Turner felt in that moment, before the sport shut down, could give a window into how he will feel moving forward.

His counter was that a player has to want the team, too. They have to like the city, the coaches, see themselves raising a family in the Washington area for six months of every year. Turner’s wife, Kristen, is pregnant with a boy. This all matters more now, at 27, with two full seasons before the shortstop reaches free agency in 2022. So when Turner considered those factors — the city, the coaches, visions of his kid running through the Nationals Park clubhouse — where did he land?

“That I hope I’m the position player they invest in,” he said with a small smile. “That I want to be a guy who plays his entire career in one place.”

The Nationals and Turner discussed a pre-free agency extension in the spring. General manager Mike Rizzo, now signed to a three-year extension himself, expects the sides to talk again once he figures out the “landscape.” That could include two components: First, how the pandemic will impact finances and future roster building. And second, and more importantly, how much Turner’s summer will up his open-market value.

He has been one of the sport’s best players in 2020. He entered Wednesday with a .359 batting average, the highest in baseball. In a 16-game hitting streak in August he had a 1.399 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, more than two hits a night, seven doubles and four homers. Those are video game numbers, and he’s mostly posted them out of the leadoff spot, where he combines flashes of power with some of the sport’s best speed.

It all makes him a logical cornerstone, the kind of infielder any team would dig in and build around. But it’s not that simple with Washington. The Nationals developed outfielder Bryce Harper before he signed a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies ahead of the 2019 season. They developed third baseman Anthony Rendon before he signed a seven-year, $245 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels last winter. And now Turner leads a young lineup with the 21-year-old Juan Soto, who could break records as a free agent in 2025.

Turner may not demand the mega contracts afforded to Harper and Rendon. But with his stock rising, and with room for it to grow, he’s become a premium shortstop. Since 2016, he’s been in the same statistical neighborhood as Corey Seager, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor and Javier Báez, the class of the position. In 2020, he’s kept pace with phenom Fernando Tatis Jr.