Third baseman, free agent, Justin Turner has announced that he will return to World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner shared the news in a tweet on Saturday night. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the deal is two years and is worth $ 34 million.
There is an option for the club for a third season, and the deal is still pending physical examination, notes Rosenthal. The Turner contract is the biggest guarantee for a player with 36 or more years of free agent position in the first year of trading since Victor Martinez’s four-year contract and $ 68 million with the Detroit Tigers in 2014, Rosenthal he adds.
Coming off-season, we ranked Turner in seventh place among the 60 best free agents, and he was the player with the best remaining ranking on the board, with only a few weeks to go before the official start of spring training.
Turner, 36, has been a pillar with the Dodgers since signing with the club as a free agent in 2014. He did well in the abbreviated 2020 season, scoring 0.307 / 0.400 / 0.460 with four home runs, nine doubles and 23 RBI in 175 plate appearances. He received interest from Brewers, Mets and Blue Jays, among other teams in this off-season.
Turner has seen his offensive output drop slightly in the past two years, and injuries have limited him to 410 of the 546 possible games in 2017-20, or 75 percent. However, he still thinks about remaining an asset with his bat and his glove, at least in the short term.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that during Game 6 of the World Series, Turner returned to the field after learning that his test was positive for COVID-19, leaving his isolation mandatory. Despite the irresponsible and potentially damaging decision, it does not appear that this was taken into account in the Dodgers’ decision to bring Turner back. In fact, it was the president of the Dodgers’ baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, who defended Turner’s actions.
Major League Baseball completed its investigation into Turner’s behavior in Game 6, and both Turner and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred issued statements as part of the investigation’s closure. No punishment, either suspension or fine, was mentioned at the official launch of the league.
The Dodgers will try to repeat themselves as World Series champions in the 2021 MLB season. Although defending champions did not need many upgrades this winter, they still signed the best free-starting player available at Trevor Bauer. However, they lost outside defender Joc Pederson, utility Enrique Hernandez and appeaser Pedro Baez in the free agency, and will face fierce competition from their division rival San Diego Padres this year.