“He's one of my favorite players to watch in the game right now. He's going to be a bright young star in this game for a long time.”
Those were the words of Yankees star Aaron Judge describing the Brewers’ Brice Turang, who hit a walk-off home run on Sunday to secure Milwaukee’s three-game sweep over New York. That’s hefty praise for Turang, who has quietly turned into a superstar over the course of the last few years.
Just take a look at how Turang has fared dating back to the beginning of last August.
Wins Above Replacement (FanGraphs) leaders since last August:
Shohei Ohtani: 6.5 (3.7 hitting, 2.8 pitching)
Aaron Judge: 5.5
Bobby Witt Jr.: 5.4
BRICE TURANG: 4.8
Cristopher Sánchez: 4.8
That’s right. Since the beginning of last August, Turang has played like a legitimate top-five player in baseball, trailing only the elite trio of Shohei Ohtani, Judge and Bobby Witt Jr., according to WAR.
This has come in a significant sample, too. In 87 games since last August, Turang is running a .312/.409/.552 slash line with a 169 wRC+, 18 home runs and 13 stolen bases. The Brewers’ second baseman has been slowly blossoming into a legitimate star for years, but it appears that he’s reached the apex of his talent.
Here’s how Turang got to this point as the clear-cut best position player on one of the best teams in baseball.
The following numbers are entering Monday.
Emergence as a legit slugger
The son of former big leaguer Brian Turang, Brice was selected as a high schooler by the Brewers in the first round of the 2018 Draft. Turang flashed above-average tools across the board in the Minors but his lack of power capped perceived upside -- the highest he ranked on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list was No. 96 before the 2021 season.
In his first MLB season, Turang’s lack of thump was obvious when he posted a .585 OPS in 137 games. Since that point, though, Turang has shown a clear progression toward realizing his potential and adding real pop to his game.
2023 (137 games): .218/.285/.300 slash line, 61 wRC+, 6 HR, -0.1 WAR
2024 (155 games): .254/.316/.349 slash line, 88 wRC+, 7 HR, 2.6 WAR
2025 (156 games): .288/.359/.435 slash line, 124 wRC+, 18 HR, 4.4 WAR
2026 (35 games): .298/.422/.511 slash line, 165 wRC+, 6 HR, 1.9 WAR
It’s hard to find a more clear example of a player getting better. Whereas Turang was pretty much a speed-defense guy in his first two MLB seasons, he’s really become a complete all-around player in the last few. And there’s an easy way to explain why Turang has become a legitimately good hitter now.
Coming into the 2025 season, Turang revamped his mechanics at the plate and significantly improved his contact quality. Turang added 4.4 mph of bat speed from 2024 to 2025, the largest increase among any qualified hitter. Given the correlation between bat speed and overall contact quality, that was a significant development for Turang.
As a result of his faster swing, Turang also had the largest jump in hard-hit rate from 2024-25, as well as the biggest increase in average exit velocity and a top 10 jump in barrel rate.
His production since August 2025
Despite these wholesale changes, we didn’t see them fully blossom for Turang to begin last season. Through the end of July, Turang had a .703 OPS and six home runs, a slight tick above his 2024 level.
Then Turang went bonkers in the month of August, when he hit 10 home runs. That nearly matched the combined home runs (13) he hit from 2023-24. And Turang simply hasn’t stopped hitting since that point.
As mentioned earlier, Turang has been one of baseball’s top players since the calendar flipped to August last season. Among qualified hitters, Turang boasts the sixth-best OPS (.961) since August. His 169 wRC+ is third, ranking behind Judge and Ben Rice.
He’s earned every bit of that production, too. Based on expected wOBA, which looks at a player’s quality and quantity of contact, Turang has a .389 xwOBA since August, sixth best among all players with at least 250 plate appearances. Ahead of him are Yordan Alvarez, Judge, Rice, Ohtani and Juan Soto.
Since August, Turang has a 53.2 percent hard-hit rate, 12.1 percent barrel rate and a 92.5 mph average exit velocity, all of which are well above his career averages and the league average rate on the whole.
Impact of the World Baseball Classic
Turang might have been relatively underrated last year, but after he was a prominent member of Team USA’s World Baseball Classic roster this year, there’s no doubt that he became more of a household name.
According to those around him, too, there’s no doubt that his participation made an impact. Take what Judge and Brewers manager Pat Murphy told MLB.com's Adam McCalvy over the weekend, for example.
Judge said he loved the way Turang asked questions throughout the WBC about how Judge prepares and how the Yankees operate, looking for any small thing to bring back to the Brewers. And Turang, in turn, appreciated Judge’s willingness to answer despite his many obligations as a Major League superstar.
That back and forth is exactly why Murphy was so thrilled when Turang got the nod from Team USA.
“He’s got a ton of confidence in his game,” Murphy said. “The kid just keeps taking steps every time. It’s really, really fun watching it.”
It’s harder to fully quantify this type of impact, but Turang playing for a loaded Team USA roster and being able to work with some of the best players in baseball can only help someone like Turang. Not to mention the fact that Turang was going up against some of the most talented WBC teams we’ve ever had in a high-stakes international competition.
“I’m really excited to learn from those guys and then compete against other countries. It’s going to be a great experience,” Turang told MLB.com when he was initially selected to Team USA’s roster. “There’s not one specific person. I just want to pick everyone’s brain a little bit.”
Add up all of these elements and it’s easy to see why things are coming together for the 26-year-old. As the Brewers continue to put together another strong season, Turang is front and center as one of their top players.
MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy contributed reporting to this article