Trea Turner Makes Phillies Fans Happy Or Is It the Other Way Around?

An amazing thing happened in baseball last week—on and off the field. You might have seen it or read about it at the time. I was out of the country but following baseball news from many time zones away. And now that I’m back, and have had time to reflect on the news, it still seems worthy of discussion.

Last off season, the Philadelphia Phillies signed Trea Turner to an 11-year/$300 million contract. Turner turned 30 in June, which would make him 41 in the last year of the deal. Since the beginning of the Expansion Era in 1962, there have only two 40-year-old shortstops that played more than 140 games in a season: Derek Jeter in 2014 and Omar Vizquel in 2007. So, like with most large, long-term contracts, the Phillies likely expected to get the highest value out of Turner in the first 5-7 years.

Since Turner’s first full season in 2016, he’s accumulated the most offensive fWAR among MLB shortstops and only Francisco Lindor outranks him in total fWAR (which includes offense, defense and base running). Locking in Turner as their everyday shortstop for the next 11 years seemed like a sure bet for the Phillies.

Then, the season began, and that sure bet looked anything but.

Turner really struggled at the plate in April and May, seemed to right himself a bit in June, but fell well off again in July. Heading into August, Turner was batting .240/.295/.378 on the year, with 10 home runs, 21 doubles, and 4 triples. Since 2019, Turner hadn’t finished the season with a batting average below .298 and was well above that mark in 2020 and 2021.

Through July, Turner’s strikeout rate spiked to 24%—the highest of his career since he debuted in 2015. And his batting average on balls in play plummeted below .300, well off his career numbers. Turner wasn’t making contact frequently enough and when he did, the results were not productive.

Turner seemed to carry his offensive struggles into the field. He’s committed 13 errors so far this season, when errors around the league are down significantly, according to an analysis by The Athletic. His career high in errors is 16—last season with the Dodgers.

Phillies fans let Turner hear it with a chorus of boos in a game on July 24, after Turner committed his second error of the game.

I know what you’re thinking. Turner’s just lucky the fans didn’t throw batteries at him. 

It’s a well-worn view that Philadelphia fans are the worst in sports. I’m married to a Philly sports guy who grew up going to Eagles games. He’s also one of the kindest people on Earth. He’s always maintained that Philly sports fans got a bad rap—not that they didn’t boo and occasionally throw things, but no more than rabid sports fans in other cities. Over my 50-plus years of attending sporting events in cities around the country—including many in New York, Boston, and San Francisco—I gave my husband the benefit of the doubt.

His faith in his hometown brothers and sisters was rewarded last week.

Spurred on by former Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and a producer for Philly sports radio station WIP, Phillies fans did the unthinkable. On Friday, August 4, during a Phillies home game against the Kansas City Royals, fans rose to their feet and gave Turner standing ovations as he walked to the plate for each at bat.

Starting with that game and through yesterday’s action, Turner is 17-for-39 with 2 home runs, 6 doubles, and 10 runs batted in. He’s struck out only 6 times. Overall in August, Turner is batting .333/.370/.569. His strikeout rate has dropped below 20% for the first time all season.

Is Turner fixed? Will he sustain this level of production the remainder of the season? Will he power the Phillies to a spot in the postseason? We’ll have to wait and see about that.

Here’s what we do know. Turner was so moved by the standing ovation that he agreed to let the Phillies post thank you messages on digital billboards around Philadelphia.

There’s no simple cause-and-effect relationship we can draw between the standing ovations and Turner’s much improved performance. The sample size of 39 at-bats is too small. We can’t control for the quality of the pitching and fielding Turner’s faced since August 4. And so on.

But what if that doesn’t matter? What if the standing ovations simply made Turner feel more welcome, comfortable and happy without improving his performance? What if Phillies fans felt a rush of endorphins just from the act of standing, clapping and cheering? Isn’t that why we watch sports to begin with?

We invest all of that time and money because watching sports makes us happy. Psychologists have actually studied this and found that being a sports fan gives us higher levels of self-esteem and makes us happy by bringing us together with friends and family and giving us a sense of belonging. And that’s true whether the team we’re rooting for wins or loses.

Wouldn’t it be something if Philly sports fans kick started a new trend of fans giving standing ovations to players just because it made everyone feel good? I’d throw snowballs in joy if that were to happen.