The 2023 World Baseball Classic makes it difficult to draw conclusions given that it’s a relatively short tournament and sample sizes are incredibly small.
Still, it helped us with some handy reminders.
One of them is that new Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner is really, really good at baseball.
In fact, we will say it: he is a true superstar.
Look at what he did in the Classic.
Trea Turner’s final WBC stats:
.391/.440/1.043 (1.483 OPS), 5 HR pic.twitter.com/OQL41YaV0r
—Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 22, 2023
He led all players with five home runs, including at least one in each game of the single elimination round.
He hit a crucial grand slam against Venezuela in the quarterfinals to turn around the score, two against Cuba in the semifinals, and one in the final against Japan that wasn’t enough to get the victory.
Still, it was an impressive WBC campaign for the Phils’ $300 million man.
Philadelphia will go from having Bryson Stott playing important innings in advanced postseason rounds, to fielding one of the best in the business in Turner.
Turner’s career has evolved, as he understands that he won’t have elite wheels forever.
He once was a threat to steal over 40 bases per season, but that is not the case anymore as he approaches his thirties.
Instead, he is now more of a well-balanced 20-20 threat with the chance to hit .300 every year.
That’s not too shabby, in fact.
To do that, he has taken a step forward in the power department – as evidenced by his WBC showing and his 49 home runs in the last two seasons – and has been running a bit less than in the past.
The end result was a player who posted 13.1 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in the last two years.
That’s what earned him $300 million.
NEXT:
Taijuan Walker Reflects On His WBC Experience
