Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski delivered a blunt message to shortstop Trea Turner on Thursday morning at Citizens Bank Park: improve in the field next season or find a new position.
“We were very clear. He knows he has to be better at shortstop. And I told him that it’s really mandatory that he’s like that,” Dombrowski said, according to MLB.com. “He feels he can play, and if he plays shortstop like he did in ’25, he can play shortstop. But if he plays it like he did in ’26, he can’t. And he totally understands that.”
The comments follow what was, by Turner’s own standard, the worst season of his career. He finished 2026 with -17 defensive runs saved at shortstop, the third time in his four seasons with the Phillies that he has posted a negative, double-digit DRS mark.
At the plate, the two-time batting champion and three-time All-Star hit .242/.297/.378 with 19 home runs, 58 RBIs, 21 stolen bases, an 81 OPS+ and -0.1 wins above replacement. Every one of those rate stats and his WAR figure were career worsts over a full season. The drop-off is especially stark against his 2025 campaign, when Turner led the National League with a .304 batting average and produced 5.4 WAR.
Dombrowski said the organization signed Turner believing his athleticism would allow him to remain productive over the long term, which makes the 2026 decline notable.
“The reason we signed him at the beginning compared to some others, not only was he a good player, but we thought that he had the ability to continue to be a good player for a longer time period because of his quick-twitch muscles, the type of athlete he is, what he possesses,” Dombrowski said. “I mean, he led the league in hitting last year, so I was surprised myself on the offensive year that he had and that we weren’t able to get out of it, as he was, so it’s up to us to try to fix all those types of things.”
Dombrowski said the club has already shared feedback with Turner and that the shortstop has indicated he will do what the organization believes is best, including moving off shortstop if necessary.
“We’ve already given him some information ourselves that we think could be helpful. … We need to leave it that he is very willing to do, if he doesn’t play shortstop, what is best for the Philadelphia Phillies organization. So, that’s how we left it with him, and he’s determined to show us that he can play it. And I said, ‘You have to show it. You cannot play shortstop like he did defensively in ’26, going into ’27.'”
Turner, 33, is four years into an 11-year, $300 million contract with the Phillies. He has not regularly played a position other than shortstop since 2021, when he made starts at second base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Earlier in his career, he started 44 games in center field for the Washington Nationals in 2016 and has 79 career starts at second base.
The shortstop situation arrives alongside other organizational news. The Phillies on Wednesday named Don Mattingly their full-time manager on a two-year deal. Mattingly had served as interim skipper after the team fired Rob Thomson following a 9-19 start to the season. Under Mattingly, Philadelphia went 79-55 before losing the Wild Card Series in three games to the Atlanta Braves. The Phillies have not advanced past the NL Division Series since 2023.
