Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Metsmerized Online’s Michael Mayer reports the Mets could make a serious run at signing offensive weapon Trea Turner.
Turner, a former Washington National who was sent to the Dodgers in 2021, is 29 years old and is one of the best pure hitters in all of baseball and one of the top free agents in this year’s class.
Buzz over the last 24 hours has been that the Mets really like Trea Turner and could make a run at the offensive weapon.
Adding a player like Turner would give the Mets a ton of versatility offensively and defensively.
— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) November 7, 2022
Over his eight-year career, Trea boasts a .302/.355/.478 slash line. Arguably the fastest player in MLB, Turner has led the majors twice in stolen bases, accounting for a total of 230 in his career.
It’s exciting to think about the lineup that adding Turner could create, potentially featuring the two reigning batting title winners (Turner and Jeff McNeil) batting first and second, with Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso to follow. For a team that struggled at the plate down the stretch, Turner would add a legitimate weapon at the plate and create a possible offensive juggernaut in Queens.
In addition to Turner’s prowess at the plate and constant threat on the base paths, his athleticism allows him to play all over the field and he could fill multiple holes on defense. A shortstop by trade, Turner has also played significant time at second base and center field.
Should the Mets decide not to bring back Brandon Nimmo, Turner could fill the void in center. If Nimmo does return to Queens and Turner is signed as well, then the Mets will have a surplus of talented players to fill out the defense and DH roles.
With Turner at second base, McNeil can move to left field and allow Mark Canha to DH, or McNeil can slide into the DH role and leave Canha in left field. Either way, after seeing the team go cold when Starling Marte went down it’s not hard to see why the Mets would rather have too many than not enough solid bats.
Time will tell how serious the Mets are about bringing in Turner, but if the splash signing of Edwin Díaz yesterday is any indication of how the off-season will go then we should not count them out of any free agent conversation.
