Before the coronavirus put the baseball season on pause this spring, the Nationals and star shortstop Trea Turner engaged in extension talks, general manager Mike Rizzo confirmed to reporters (including Todd Dybas of NBC Sports Washington). Of course, the pandemic introduced plenty of economic uncertainty for all 30 clubs. Nevertheless, Rizzo expressed an interest in revisiting those discussions once he gets an opportunity to examine the organization’s financial “landscape” (via Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post).
The 27-year-old Turner has done nothing to dissuade the front office’s interest in keeping him in the fold long-term. He’s somewhat quietly putting up a fabulous season, hitting .368/.421/.632 with nine home runs and five stolen bases in 171 plate appearances. While he obviously won’t sustain a .393 batting average on balls in play, Turner has seemingly turned a corner offensively. He’s striking out at a career-low 14.6% clip and has hit significantly fewer pop-ups this season. For his career, Turner’s a .297/.354/.479 hitter (118 wRC+) with generally average defense at shortstop, positioning him as a 4-5 win player per 600 plate appearances.
Turner and the Nationals agreed on a $7.45MM salary to avoid arbitration this offseason, his second year of eligibility. The former Super Two player is currently slated to go through the process twice more (and figures to earn a nice raise this winter) before reaching free agency after 2022. His first would-be free agent year would be his age-30 season.
More immediately, Rizzo says he plans to turn his attention to the managerial chair. Skipper Dave Martinez is amidst the final guaranteed season of his three-year contract, although the club does possess an option on his services for 2021. Rizzo made clear today he hopes not to have to exercise that option, instead preferring to hammer out a long-term extension with Martinez (via Jessica Camerato of MLB.com). “That’s the plan going forward,” Rizzo said. “See if we can get something done (and) negotiate a longer-term deal with him that goes beyond just picking up the option.” The GM himself just inked an extension yesterday that’ll keep him in D.C. though 2023.
The Nationals have had something of a rocky history with managers, with the Lerner family ownership group notoriously reluctant to commit to skippers on long-term deals. Martinez, though, is the only manager to have led the franchise to a World Series title, so it’d be a shock to see the parties not eventually come to terms on an extension.
6 years 195 million
Absolutely not that would be way overpaying him. If you would pay that money for Turner just go out and get Lindor in FA
Turner’s new deal will definitely be interesting.. I’m sure his agent will use this season to point to his ceiling and potential moving forward…However, I’m sure the Gnats will point to his career stats, injury history, and his unsustainable BABIP to try and drive his price down..
It will definitely be interesting to see where the two land, and where they’re able to find some common ground..I could see somewhere around 6 years 135…That would be my best guess, and seems like a fair deal for both sides..Then again, that is completely off the top of my head, so the set market might already make that a dumb proposal..Idk..lol
I’d bet Turner negotiates himself an opt-out after 3 seasons. If this year is the new normal for him he’d be able to test free agency again at 30 and get another mega deal.
No disrespect to players having “great” seasons but the sample size is small. Other than perhaps adding or subtracting for how someone performs under pressure, this year in my view should be ignored. Also finances for new deals due to COVID could be significantly impacted moving forward since past deals can’t be individually adjusted.
@bravesfan88 What injury history!?!?!?!?!? How many days in his entire professional career (both minor and major league) has Trea Turner spent on the DL/IL due to chronic, non-HBP-related injuries?
@Ted no point in doing that from the Nats’ POV. They do that and they only add one year of club control while essentially giving Trea a player option for a whole bunch of years and money that he will only exercise if he is worth less than that.
@bravesfan88 yeah, that’s what I thought.
Seems like a lot for a manager, even a World Series winning one.
Tried to tell everyone whichever team that got Martinez was getting a great manager, and really wanted him for the Braves…
Even so, idk I think I might have been wrong for the Braves. I think Snitker is pretty much the perfect guy for the job in Atlanta. As long as he continues to surround himself with a solid analytics department, a great assistant head coach and baseball mind like Weiss, and another great baseball mind like Ron Washington that keeps up with the new trends, teaching methods, and is able to relate extremely well, Snit will continue to get the absolute most out of his guys.
The Braves players absolutely love Snitker, but idk, I just cannot help but wonder what could have been with Martinez..Oh well, happy for him, his family, and I suppose for the Gnats as well..lol
Thought this post was about the Nationals not a advertisement for the historically underachieving cheap Braves. Hmmmm
@bravesfan88. What’s your problem?!?! You can’t ever admit you are wrong on this site but only ever over emphasize about the predictions that you got right that you make up on the spot. This is the way of the MBLTR poster. If you violate this rule again you will be bludgeoned to death with the pink unicorn cotton stuffed war hammer.
@Yep it is. Can’t connect the dots, eh? Let me help you. You see, bravesfan there connected his topic to the Nationals by stating that he thought at the time Martinez was the best bet for the Braves and then branched into another topic. I hope I don’t need to create a logic tree diagram for you.
Also, since you aren’t really great at connecting dots and all, yes, this article is about the underachieving Nationals.
The nationals only have a couple year more window. If nothing is done with him, he and Max are gone. The only real offensive player would be Soto. There doesn’t seem to be much pitching behind Stras and Corbin. The bullpen will need to be rebuilt for the next 2 year run.
As for Davey, he just seems like an average manger. You can take or leave him.
We as fans have a difficult time evaluating managers and you see it in fan reactions. We don’t get a slash line making it easy to evaluate a managers performance and just like a pitcher, wins and losses are a poor tool by itself. Just as Jacob deGrom, currently baseball’s best pitcher, who can’t seem to buy wins.
The one thing we have is personal experience which is hazardous by itself. We put our eyes on a manager and with a fraction of that managers work being observed, we make out judgements with all our biases.
I would really like to see sabremetrics get involved in this. It would be nice to have more tools to evaluate with.
Judgments doesn’t have an “e”!!!
Love it when pedants own themselves by being wrong. Judgment and judgement are both correct. Now screw off, this is a baseball site
Well put and I agree
The Nats should trade him mow while his value is high. To an AL team. I say this as a smart baseball aficionado, not a Braves fan who is tired of getting owned by double T
Preller in shambles
Give Turner a nice raise for ‘21 and make the long term deal assessment after the full season. They still have him for ‘22 regardless.