Turang made shocking pitch to Brewers to land 1st pro contract ... or did he?

ST. PETERSBURG -- Brice Turang swears he never said it during negotiations on his first pro contract.

“You going to let $1 million stand in the way of signing a Hall of Famer?"

The Brewers’ brain trust swears he did.

Whether he did or didn’t, it’s a story of the quiet confidence that burns within the Brewers’ star second baseman, whose team worked out at Tropicana Field on Sunday with the subtle swagger of a team holding a 2-0 lead in the World Series.

“He's not lacking confidence, you know what I mean?” manager Pat Murphy said. “He's certainly not lacking confidence.”

So, here’s the disputed tale. It came from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, who wrote a story in May of Turang’s development from a light-hitting, slick-fielding infielder to an all-around threat qualified to rub shoulders with the likes of Team USA’s Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper in the World Baseball Classic. The story included an anecdote about negotiations between Turang and the Brewers after the team drafted him 21st overall in 2018. He’d been a star shortstop at Santiago High School in Corona, Calif., the same hometown as two of the Brewers’ first-round picks in the past two years: brothers Brady and Trey Ebel.

Turang had a scholarship waiting for him at baseball powerhouse LSU to use as leverage in negotiations, and the sides were far apart in terms of a signing bonus as the deadline neared. How far apart is also disputed. As the story went in USA Today, Turang said to then-Brewers GM David Stearns, “You going to let $1 million stand in the way of signing a Hall of Famer?"

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That’s confidence. But it’s hard to envision, because while Turang has developed into one of the Brewers’ best hitters, he is also one of their quietest and humblest.

So, while the Brewers were preparing to play a game at Wrigley Field back in May, we asked him.

“It kind of shocks me that I would have said that,” Turang said. “Because when you get here and you grow up a little bit, you get a little humble. Man, what I am today versus what I was when I was younger, it’s just different. You learn as you get older.

“You should ask Arnold.”

That’s Matt Arnold, the Brewers’ president of baseball operations, who took over the top spot from Stearns in 2022.

He happened to be sitting right there in the dugout. So, we asked him.

“Yes, he said that,” Arnold said.

Arnold would know. He says he was listening in on the phone call between Turang and Stearns.

“I was like, ‘David, we need to sign this guy,’” Arnold said. “He was good. We liked him a lot. He did say it.”

Arnold pauses the story. He worries he’s sharing too much.

So he calls Turang over to the bench.

“Brice, I know you’re a humble man. I appreciate you,” Arnold said. “It’s a real thing. I’m not changing any of the story. I’m just saying what happened. You said your agent made you say it.”

Turang: “I never said that, either!”

He pauses.

“Now, you guys are saying it, which is starting to make me believe,” Turang said. “Like, if multiple people say I said it ... I do remember saying, ‘You’re going to let me go to college for this amount of money?’ I remember saying that. I don’t remember saying ‘Hall of Fame.’”

Arnold smiles.

“Hall of Famer. You said it,” Arnold says. “And I hope you’re right.”

There’s a long way to go for that, but Turang’s trajectory is headed in the right direction. Here's his OPS year by year:

2023: .585
2024: .665
2025: .794
2026: .816

And here's his weighted runs created plus (wRC+), a good measure of all-around offense that accounts for ballpark factors. A 100 equates to league average. Each tick above or below represents one percent above or below average.

2023: 61
2024: 88
2025: 124
2026: 127

He’s making his manager look very smart, because in 2024 Spring Training, Murphy predicted Turang would take a “quantum leap” after his rough rookie season. And Turang did, boosting his offensive stock while winning a Gold Glove Award at second base and the NL Platinum Glove Award as the league’s top overall defender, regardless of position.

A year later, he accessed his power, going from 13 home runs over his first two seasons in the big leagues to 18 homers in 2025. And in ‘26, he hit 21 home runs with a team-high 100 RBIs, one of nine players in the Majors to crack the century mark. Plus, he has a chance to take home his second Gold Glove Award when those results are announced on Nov. 1.

He’s 1-for-6 in the World Series so far, but he’s already walked three times, and the hit was a double in the seventh inning of Game 2 that led to the winning run on Cooper Pratt’s go-ahead hit.

“Brice knew he was good,” Murphy said. “Why do you think I picked him for the quantum leap? Because I knew he knew.”

The Brewers knew, too.

Which brings us back to the conversation between the second baseman and the president of baseball ops in the dugout at Wrigley Field in May.

“If you would have gone to LSU,” Arnold said, “you’re getting picked top 2 [when Turang was Draft-eligible again]. Because you’re going there with mettle, and played an unbelievable shortstop and raked. That’s what I was sort of telling David: ‘If he goes to LSU, he’s going to be a top 2-3 pick.’”

“Yeah,” Turang said, “but it all worked out.”

We’ll give Turang the last word on this matter of “did he or didn’t he say it.”

“I wouldn’t have even made the call if they would have just paid me,” Turang said with a smile.