Turner's resurgence gives Phillies hope as Trade Deadline nears

PHILADELPHIA -- Trea Turner thinks about his swing as much as anybody thinks about their swing.

He watches lots of video. He hits a ton in the cage.

Turner said he thought about his swing on the flight from Detroit to Philadelphia on Sunday evening, following the Phillies’ final game before the All-Star break. But he said once he got home, he unplugged. He relaxed. He enjoyed his family. He played with his kids.

“Kind of shut the brain off,” Turner said following Saturday’s 6-1 victory over the Mets at Citizens Bank Park.

Turner went 3-for-4 with one home run, one walk, one stolen base and three runs scored on Saturday. It was his second homer in as many games since the break, helping him finish the evening with a .663 OPS. It’s his highest mark since he had a .663 OPS on May 6.

It’s not where he wants to be, but it’s better than where he was.

Turner had a .595 OPS on June 15, but he is batting .311 with five home runs, 14 RBIs and an .856 OPS in 25 games since.

“I feel like I've been hitting the ball pretty good for the last month, but the last 10 games or so I've been lining out quite a bit, which has been really frustrating,” Turner said. “I even lined out today again. But just kind of stick there. Don’t change anything. I feel like the at-bats have been pretty good for the most part … talking a couple walks here and there. So just get on base, find a way to get on first base for those guys behind me and good things happen.”

There has been endless talk this season about the Phillies’ need to find a potent right-handed bat before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, especially since Adolis Garcia’s season-ending surgery on his right latissimus dorsi muscle late last month. The Phillies have Derek Hill trying to fill Garcia’s role in the outfield, but the Phillies could use another middle-of-the-order threat.

But the Phillies can’t have it all. They need a late-inning reliever and a fifth starter, too, and they have a farm system with few blue-chip prospects to trade.

The Phillies must decide what they need the most.

If they funnel their best prospects into a late-inning stud to replace Brad Keller, who has suffered a season-ending UCL tear in his right elbow, they might have to look for a more modest upgrade to the lineup.

Or maybe they just count on right-handed-hitters like Turner, Alec Bohm and J.T. Realmuto to play better down the stretch and into October.

There are reasons to think Turner’s last 25 games are a sign of things to come. He cited his career-worst .281 batting average on balls in play entering Saturday, which suggests some level of bad luck.

“The frustrating things for me are the things that I've always been good at, that just disappeared,” Turner said. “Like batting average on balls in play just makes no sense to me.

“I've never done that my entire career. I would understand if the speed was gone, but the speed's not. The most frustrating part to me is I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to and I’m just kind of either hitting it right at people or getting unlucky or whatever you want to call it. But I feel like that's the one number that was frustrating to me early on.”

Turner’s BABIP was just .262 through June 15, but it’s .338 from June 16 through Thursday, which is almost exactly in line with his career average (.339).

Turner, who committed an error in the second, reached on an infield single to start the game. He scored on Kyle Schwarber’s MLB-leading 33rd homer of the season. Turner’s solo homer in the fifth made it 3-1. He walked, stole second and scored on Bryce Harper’s single to right in the sixth to make it 6-1.

“When he's going, it seems like it gets a lot easier for us offensively,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.

It does, and the results finally seem to be turning in Turner’s favor.

“I'm not the prettiest player,” Turner said. “I don't do everything perfectly. I just find a way to help the team. It might be a swinging bunt. It might be chasing a ball off the plate and hitting a double down the right-field line. Who knows? But I feel like when I try to be perfect, it sets me backwards. I just got to be who I am.”