Veteran infielder Justin Turner joined the Chicago Cubs on a one-year, $6 million deal in late February, as the 40-year-old prepares to join his seventh big league team and return to the National League for the first time since the 2022 season.
After spending more than half of his 16 years in MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2014-2022), the former Roberto Clemente Humanitarian Award winner played the 2023 campaign with the Boston Red Sox and split last season between the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.
In a recent interview with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Turner discussed his exit from the Mariners. Even though he said that he wanted to re-sign with Seattle, Turner also took aim at the front office, blasting them for failing to do what it takes to make the playoffs for what would’ve been just the second time since 2001.
The Mariners finished last year 85-77 to miss the postseason yet again, haven’t advanced past the ALDS in 24 years and have never won a pennant. They ended the 2024 campaign just one game out of the playoff picture.
“The fact that they missed the playoffs by one game, and didn’t go out and add an impact bat or two when you have the best pitching staff in baseball just seems absurd to me,” Turner said. “Honestly, as much as I wanted to be back there, if I was the only piece they brought back in, I would be saying the same thing: What the hell are we doing? Are you trying?”
The two-time All-Star added that he didn’t know “what they’re doing,” he was “very confused” and the team’s offseason signings (or lack thereof) was a “head-scratcher” for him.
“I told them several times this offseason, you have a unicorn of a pitching staff,” Turner said, per Nightengale’s report. “This might be the best five starting pitchers in the history of the game. I mean, find me a better five-man. … There’s never going to be a better time in the history of that franchise to have added a couple of bats to make a run than this year. And they missed it.”
Mariners Team President Won’t Make Any New Fans Following Latest Interview
As Nightengale noted, Seattle’s starting rotation of Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo had a historically good 2024 season.
The quintet started 149 of the team’s 162 games and registered a franchise-record 3.40 ERA. The group also paced MLB in a host of categories, including opponent’s batting average (.223), on-base percentage (.266), OPS (.644), WHIP (1.03), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.77) and quality starts (92).
In the wake of Turner’s comments, Sam Blum of The Athletic published an article on Thursday, detailing his recent interview with Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto. Already a target of many baseball followers in Seattle, some of his most recent quotes likely won’t be winning over any new fans.
Among the latest words from Dipoto that could land him in hot water again stem from his explanation of a quote from a 2023 interview, where he argued that the best way to build a contender over numerous seasons is to not sacrifice multiple years for “one great year.”
“People obviously didn’t understand it the way I expressed it. … My guess is that 98 percent of people didn’t actually listen to it. They just read it off a tweet,” Dipoto told Blum. “It’s what it is. Maybe they wouldn’t have understood it any better had they heard the whole thing. And that’s on me for poorly communicating what I think is a simple idea.”
The former relief pitcher added that he has a “hard job,” and while “most jobs are hard jobs,” he was in a unique field.
“But in most jobs, they don’t stick a microphone in front of your face,” Dipoto said.
ESPN Insider Calls Turner ‘Truth Teller,’ Says He’s ‘Dead On’
One prominent voice who happens to agree with Turner’s assessment is ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney.
During an appearance on the “Refuse to Lose” podcast, Olney backed up the former NLCS MVP’s words, though he added that he didn’t think the Mariners’ shortcomings were Dipoto’s fault.
“(Turner’s) a truth teller. I think he was dead on in what he said. He mentioned that he doesn’t think it’s on Jerry Dipoto, the head of baseball ops. I think that’s exactly right,” Olney said.
Dipoto served as Seattle’s general manager from 2015-2022, before being promoted to president of baseball operations.
Turner was traded from the Blue Jays to the Mariners last July and finished the year with his fewest home runs (11) since the 2014 campaign (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) and lowest RBI (55) and hits totals (119) since 2018 (excluding 2020), along with a career-worst .259 batting average. He posted five home runs, 24 RBI and a .264/.363/403 slash line across 159 at-bats covering 48 games with Seattle.
“I thought Justin’s comments were dead on about the fact that this is a team that you would think they would want to invest in because they have that great pitching staff, they have that excellent rotation,” Olney said. “You know, that’s something to build around, but they just have this desperate need for hitting that they just weren’t able to address. And so they have to hope that things go right, that Randy Arozarena hits better than he did in the first half of last year and that Victor Robles continues to improve after having a season in which he stepped up last year. But, man, the equation is thin when you’re talking about the inevitable injuries you’re going to deal with during the course of the year. And I think Jerry’s had his hands tied.”
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