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It’s Time to Talk About Moving Trea Turner to the Outfield
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Trea Turner’s suspect defense has been no secret in Philly, and it was on full display once again in Monday’s brutal 15-1 loss to Kansas City:
That’s a truly awful error. It’s a routine double play. Turn it and the Phillies are out of the inning with a one-run lead. Instead, it turns into six Royals runs, and from there the game unravels. Unacceptable.
But beyond the play itself, the stat in that tweet really grabbed my eye. I’m pretty used to seeing rough Trea defensive numbers, but that one really jumped out. I had to search it for myself, and it’s true: Since joining the Phillies in 2023, Turner has recorded -30 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) overall and -13 DRS on double plays, both of which rank as the worst among all MLB shortstops during that span. That’s so, so bad.
And it got me wondering: Just how bad has Trea’s defense actually been at shortstop since coming to Philadelphia? Beyond the eye test, beyond the occasional terrible stat you see on Twitter a couple times a week, if you take all the numbers into account, does it actually paint that bad of a picture?
The answer is a resounding yes.
Let’s take a look:
Some Rough Numbers on Trea’s Defense
Since joining the Phillies in 2023, Turner has committed 60 errors in 497 games, including 33 fielding errors and 27 throwing errors.
Among the 44 shortstops with at least 500 total chances since the start of 2023, his 60 errors rank fourth-most in the majors.
His .967 fielding percentage over that stretch ranks him fourth-worst among those 44 shortstops, ahead of only Elly De La Cruz (.959), Tim Anderson (.964), and C.J. Abrams (.964).
Turner’s overall defensive WAR during his Phillies tenure sits at -2.65, though that number is actually helped quite a bit by one (bafflingly) excellent defensive season in 2025. Remove that outlier, and his combined defensive WAR across 2023, 2024, and 2026 plummets to -13.74. Woof.
Let’s Look at the Numbers Season by Season
2023: An awful defensive start to his Phillies career. Trea committed 23 errors (11 fielding, 12 throwing) in 153 games, tying for the second-most among all shortstops. His .959 fielding percentage ranked third-worst in MLB, and he finished with a -6.17 defensive WAR.
2024: Injuries limited Turner to 118 games, but he somehow still managed to commit 17 errors (10 fielding, seven throwing), post a .962 fielding percentage, and finish with a -2.83 defensive WAR.
2025: This season is very confusing to me – Trea Turner was somehow great defensively in 2025. He committed just eight errors in 139 games, posted a career-best .984 fielding percentage, and recorded an impressive 11.09 defensive WAR. How did this happen? Why did it only happen the one time? Why couldn’t he keep this going into 2026? Because the stats and eye test show that he very clearly has not.
2026: Our guy is back to being bad. Through just 87 games, Turner already has 12 errors (seven fielding, five throwing). 12 errors before the All-Star break! His .962 fielding percentage ranks 28th among 32 qualified shortstops, while his -4.73 defensive WAR is on pace to be the worst defensive season of his career.
In Conclusion
It’s terrible. He’s really very bad defensively. So what’s there to do about it? Some folks are calling for him to be moved to the outfield, which he has played before – and well. Way back in his breakout 2016 season with the Nationals, Turner played 45 games in center field, committing only 2 errors and posting a career-high +2.42 defensive WAR. But that was ten years ago… Could he still do it? He still has one of the fastest sprint speeds in baseball. Gotta imagine we’d see less throwing errors, too, if he’s moved out of the infield. I don’t feel great about having to depend on Trea Turner in the outfield in a big moment…
But I can’t imagine feeling any worse about having him at shortstop. I say get him in the outfield, mostly just to get him out of the infield. He has seven more years on his contract after this one. The sooner he stops costing the Phillies runs seemingly every game with his dogshit defense, the better.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com