Dropoff of Trea Turner Has Phillies in Tough Predicament

The Philadelphia Phillies are in a brutal spot with how poorly Trea Turner is playing.

Jun 8, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (7) throws out Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Andres Gimenez (not pictured) at first base during the second inning at Rogers Centre. | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies have had a few players struggling to find their footing during the 2026 MLB regular season.

Their slow start can be attributed to a lot of players not living up to expectations. Since Rob Thomson was fired and replaced by Don Mattingly, several of those veterans have gotten on track and helped the team climb back into the National League playoff picture.

Alas, some have continued struggling. One of the players who falls into the struggling category is shortstop Trea Turner, who has experienced a startling drop-off in production compared to where he was a year ago.

At this point in the 2025 season, he was the most productive positional player the Phillies had. Not only was he producing with the bat and providing his customary impact on the bases with his speed, but his defense also took an unexpected leap.

Trea Turner has struggled mightily for Phillies

May 31, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (7) throws his wrist guard after lining out during the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. | William Liang-Imagn Images

Turner was producing across the board in every facet of the game. Unfortunately, that has not been the case in 2026, with his numbers plummeting and his impact fading.

He remains one of the fastest players in baseball with a 30.1 sprint speed in the 99th percentile. His +2 Baserunning Run Value is in the 94th percentile as well. Outside of that, Turner is in the conversation as the least impactful player in the MLB.

His Fielding Run Value of -2 is in the 22nd percentile. He is giving Philadelphia nothing with the bat, producing a -13 Batting Run Value, which is in the 1st percentile. There isn’t a single batting metric where he is even average in the 50th percentile on his Baseball Savant page. The same goes for fielding.

After producing a 121 OPS+ in back-to-back years, he sits at a career-worst mark of 62 through 71 games and 313 plate appearances. His Rbat+ of 58 is also a career low. He currently has a .216/.268/.326 slash line, which would all be single-season lows outside of his debut in 2015 when he had 44 plate appearances.

Trea Turner is too talented and too athletic not to figure this out, but he needs to stop overthinking every at-bat, says @RAJr_20.

"He just needs to be Trea Turner, the athletic player I saw at NC State with unbelievable bat speed and unbelievable leg speed." pic.twitter.com/tRGjuAhTLA

— ThePhilliesShow (@ThePhilliesShow) June 17, 2026

Last year, Turner was worth 5.4 bWAR, making his presence felt across the board. This year, he has -0.1 bWAR, which leads to a lot of questions the franchise will have to figure out.

This is a major concern for the Phillies not only in 2026, but beyond. Turner is under contract for seven more years, and this dropoff in production has come out of nowhere. With no in-house option to immediately take over at shortstop because their top prospect, Aidan Miller, is dealing with a back issue, Turner will likely be in the lineup every day going forward.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes Mattingly to make a more drastic change to his role. Turner hit leadoff all season before flipping with Kyle Schwarber and batting second the last few weeks.

The change has not led to improved results. Moving him down the order further has to be strongly considered, especially given how opponents can pitch to Bryce Harper as a result of Turner’s struggles.

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