Free agent righty Spencer Turnbull has thrown for teams and continues to seek a big league opportunity, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Turnbull, who placed #50 on MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents list last offseason, surprisingly remains unsigned into the second week of the regular season.
The 32-year-old is coming off a solid, albeit injury-shortened, season with Philadelphia. The Phillies signed him to a $2MM free agent deal in February 2024. Turnbull took six turns through the rotation before kicking into multi-inning relief. He made 10 appearances out of the bullpen and one final start. Turnbull put up a 2.65 ERA with a quality 26.1% strikeout rate and a 47.5% ground-ball percentage through 54 1/3 innings.
All that work came within the season’s first three months. A lat strain sent him to the injured list in late June. While he made one rehab appearance late in September, he was not able to get back to the majors before the end of the season. It clearly wasn’t how Turnbull hoped to finish his walk year, though it seemed his early-season numbers would make him an interesting target for teams seeking affordable rotation help.
Turnbull has generally been a productive pitcher on a rate basis but hasn’t stayed healthy consistently. He tossed 148 1/3 innings across 30 starts for the Tigers back in 2019. He hasn’t reached 60 MLB frames in a season since then. Turnbull took 11 turns through the rotation during the shortened 2020 season, but his elbow blew out early in ’21. He required Tommy John surgery that July and missed the entire 2022 campaign.
He only made seven major league starts during his final season in Detroit. He struggled to a 7.26 ERA and missed time with neck soreness and a toenail avulsion. The relationship between Turnbull and the organization seemingly soured amidst those injuries and the team’s attempt to option him to the minors. They non-tendered him at year’s end, leading to his brief but effective stint with the Phils.
Last offseason’s market clearly didn’t materialize to Turnbull’s liking. Even if he’s able to secure a major league contract, he’d probably need to agree to an optional assignment so he can build up over multiple minor league appearances.
Minor league contract or Independent baseball to get some work in
There are plenty of bad MLB teams who could take a flier on him. If he pitches well, maybe you can trade him.
I get the feeling his trade market would be pretty thin. He pitched well last year and it’s apparent that no one wants him even if it only costs money. I doubt teams will be in a hurry to offer prospects and money for a guy they already don’t want.
He got all hissy at the Tigers. Turns out he had no ability to stay healthy.
They may not want him now but many teams will lose two or more starters to injuries and come June Turnbull, if he pitches decently, will look a lot more attractive as a trade chip.
The Padres could use him for sure. Been waiting for the “Padres sign Turnbull to a minor league deal” headline.
Another Tiger draft bust!
A career 5.5 WAR player who was a 2nd round pick (63rd overall) wouldn’t really qualify as a bust.
Exactly. He is right now the 3rd best player in that round according to WAR and no one is likely to ever pass him because most other players are out of the game. Heck, there are only8 1st round picks from that year that are significantly better. If there was a”re-draft” today, Turnbull would go a lot higher than #63.
People really need to understand what a “bust” is in baseball. Just making the majors at all means you are not a bust. This isn’t the NFL or the NBA where all first rounders get a chance immediately. In MLB, you have to work your way up. Just making it to the top level at all is not guaranteed.
Not everyone knows the failure rate for draftees. If it hasn’t already been done, it would be a good research project for Mr. Franco. Maybe the average WAR for picks, 1-2-3, then 4-10, 11-20, 21-30, and then 2nd, round, 3rd round, etc.
Now Mark Appel wou qualify as a bust. #1 overall who made the bigs and absolutely stunk. My buddy and I went to see him pitch in A ball shortly after that draft. After a couple innings of viewing his “stuff” (90-91 straight down the middle with no movement) we just looked at each other and said “1/1?!?!” Whoever recommended that pick should have been fired.
By your explanation, he is still not a bust. The people that drafted him were.
There has to be more to the story with this guy.
There is.
I suspect he’s a clubhouse cancer who can’t stay healthy.
That’s what I was thinking all winter long when his name never once came up. No way all 30 teams had satisfactory rotation depth heading into the season. Something(s) under the hood are scaring teams away.
Spencer Turnball throws for brewers.
I think the Jesse Winker experiment might be enough to keep the Brewers from signing guys with serious attitude problems.
That was reported by Brewers beat reporters and simultaneously the owner stated they were in contact with his agent.
Crazy for him to be available and not get called. Os have lost Grod, Eflin, Suarez, and Kittredge already this season. Doesn’t even count Burnes leaving or injuries still affecting Bradish and Wells. An 87 year old Charlie Morton cannot be what the Os are relying on. Bring in Turnball to take Kyle Gibson spot when Os bring him up from build up then they have another backup option. Can’t be more than 1.5 million at this point
I’d like to see the O’s take a look at him. Clearly we need pitching depth badly.
Someone needs to open up his head, to see what’s ticking in there…..
Milwaukee and Baltimore stand out as options with immediate needs. Question would be how soon could he be game ready?
Think his starting days are over due to his inability to stay healthy. But would he a good relief option if he’d agree to it. I heard he had attitude problems with Detroit what was the problem?
Only after he was notified that he was being sent down to the minors, he then claimed he was injured so he could go on the IL and collect a MLB contract. Even the media doubted his injury. He had no interest in going to the minors to fix his pitching.
Did he injure himself during the showcase?
let everyone know what to expect.
if he’s not *currently* injured (even if he injured himself in a month) — that’s more availability than the Orioles’ full hospital ward can say.
Sign him and throw his arm off. Bullpen can continue to take this much use.
correction: the bullpen CAN’T continue to take this much use
Speaking of him being number 50 in free agent rankings. When does the free agent contest officially close up? Can’t find any information on it
Good news you came in 2nd
Lol I was hoping no one would make the connection that I’m the leader
He does not want to sign a minor league contract. He’s always been a bit of a prima donna.
As a Detroit fan I compare him to Casey Mize. Mize wasn’t a whole lot more effective than Turnbull. In ’21 Turnbull was way better.
When Mize was sent down he worked to get back. Turnbull got the punies.
Mize is now back and pitching like the #1 draft pick he was expected to be. Turnbull can’t get anyone to return his phone calls.
It’s really hard to be successful in MLB. Turnbull has only hurt his own cause.
Turnbull should have accepted the minor league assignment a couple of years ago when he had an awful start to the season. He could have worked on his pitching with the Tigers organization’s highly effective pitching development staff, and become a more valuable MLB asset.
Instead, he was so focused on getting FA status as soon as he could, he faked or exaggerated an injury and disclosed it to the team only after being informed he was being sent down and after changing agents.
The Tigers took the high road and STILL gave him a full year of service time for his season in AAA.
Organizations have good reason to be leery of this pitcher.
Ok Preller, do your thing. Who knows when Darvish will be back, and Hart likely isn’t the answer. Waldron likely out for a while too
On a MiL deal of course… I know that’s not what he wants but he needs to prove his health and ability
While he offers potential value, especially on a cost-effective deal, teams are likely weighing the risks associated with his injury history. Is he willing to move into a bullpen piece?
This is very odd. Is this a failure on Boras’s part? Was his price tag too high and thus got burned?
Or, is there something about Turnbull that has him blackballed by Major League GMs?
Given his history of conflict and injuries, I’d bet on the latter with a little bit of the former mixed in.
I wish him the best of luck. I really do. But, I’m pretty certain his baggage is a little too much for a lot of teams.
not sure why no one picked up this guy
Minor league deal with the Mets, we could always use pitching
His nickname is “Red Bull” and even though he has a no-hitter (vs Seattle in May 2021) on his resume, believe he lives up to his nickname too much as he’s too stubborn to change his ways and become a better teammate.
Spencer Turnbull would be a great pickup at a reasonable cost
on a 1 year deal with an option or 2.
When Turnbull is healthy, he is a very good mid rotation starter or long reliever.
Read that he Turnbull now has 5 years service time so that he can reject assignments to the minors, which could be a “sticking point” for many MLB teams.
Turnbull and his agent should work out a flexible deal with some MLB team where he can get ramped up in the minors, then join the big league ballclub.
Padres?
Brewers?
Orioles?
Angels?
Phillies?
Lots of teams are short on starters and/or bullpen pieces.
Perhaps, Turnbull is set on being a starter only and is not committed to being a fulltime bullpen contributor at this time?
There is a “backstory” to this Spencer Turnbull situation.
My take on it was that Spencer Turnbull “took one for the Tigers team” during their painful rebuilding process with a struggling rotation
and a bad baseball team in the dark days of the Tigers rebuild.
Turnbull, at that time, was one of the best starters on a Tigers baseball team in the dog days of the Tigers complete teardown and rebuild.
I read that Turnbull’s injury situation with the Tigers was that Turnbull
was playing hurt and trying to keep his job/establish himself as a top of the rotation MLB starter.
When, the Tigers optioned Turnbull to AAA, then he revealed that he had been pitching hurt.
(Boras was his agent at the time).
If I remember correctly, Agent Scott Boras had issues with teams ariybd that time,about optioning other injured players (Clients) to the minors who had medical problems.
It became an issue in MLB because, at that time, it allegedly caused insurance and payment issues covering those players’ injuries and rehab.
At the time, if a player was in the minors or optioned to the minors,
major surgeries and rehab may not have been covered by the team.
The injured player may have had to pay for surgery and rehab out of his own pocket and personal funds because minor league deals did not cover players’ injury insurance and rehab at the time?!
Turnbull was Drafted by the Detroit Tigers when Dave Dombrowski was Pres of Baseball Ops and Al Avila was one of his top lieutenants.
Avila became GM after Dombrowski left the Tigers.
Avila and the Tigers retained Turnbull and he produced in the Tigers rotation for a rebuilding team.
When, Avila left and Scott Harris became Pres of Baseball Ops,
Turnbull had begun to struggle with untimely injuries.
I credit Harris for retaining the best players Dombrowski and Avila
brought into the Tigers system and also replacing some players with his own draft picks, signings and trades.
Scott Harris was not with the Tigers when Turnbull “took one for the team” and even played through some injuries
That connection between Turnbull, his agent (Boras) the the Tigers
Front Office (Dombrowski and Avila) was not the same with the New Harris Front Office team. since Turnbull had been there and perhaps even sacrificed his health to win a rotation job with the Tigers and to establish himself as a major league starter during a painful rebuild.
Dave Dombrowski did sign Turnbull to a Phillies contract last year.
Turnbull excelled as a starter and long reliever for the Phillies and contributed to the Phillies fast start last year before Turbull suffered injuries last year.
The Phillies rotation appears to be set this year.
However, the Phillies do have some “weeding” to do in their bullpen.
If Turnbull would agree to work the bullpen and do “spot starting” as needed, then he might find himself a job with the Phillies.
In the extremely competitive MLB fight for roster spots, I am sure that it is not the first time a player tried to play through injuries to keep his job.
My take is that Turnbull was the best top of the rotation guy the the Tigers had during a crucial part of their painful rebuilding process on some really bad Detroit Tigers teams.
Turnbull’s starting pitching was actually much better for the Tigers than
highly rated draft picks such as Mize, Manning etc.
Turnbull also pitched better than a young Tarik Skubal
(before Skubal began “breaking out”).
I am surprised that the Padres, White Sox, Marlins, Orioles etc.. haven’t taken a flyer on Spencer Turnbull.
a 2M-5M flyer on Spencer Turnbull.
When healthy, Spencer Turnbull has proven
that he can be a very competitive MLB starter and reliever,
Perhaps, how Turnbull’s situation ended with the Tigers caused some hard feelings. I am not sure if anyone is to blame:
Tigers POB Scott Harris, Turnbull’s former Agent Scott Boras
and/or Spencer Turnbull.???
Turnbull’s team mates appeared to have liked him and got along with him.
Some are blaming the Tigers. Some are blaming Turnbull’s agent.
Some are blaming Turnbull.
But. it shouldn’t all be blamed on Turnbull
and it should not cost Turnbull a major league job.
It should be like a lost arbitration hearing.
You move on and you don’t let affect and/or damage or affect
future contract negotiations and jobs.
nytimes.com/athletic/5588312/2024/06/24/spencer-tu…