Phillies

Trea Turner Finding Consistent Success With New Plate Approach

By Luke Arcaini

Published: May 8th, 2025 · 10:09 AM EDT

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Trea Turner took a new plate approach into the 2025 season, and it’s already paying off for the $300 million shortstop.

There’s no denying that Turner’s first two years haven’t lived up to the hype that Phillies fans had going into 2023. He got off to a brutal start, the standing ovation happened, then he had a good, but not great, 2024 season.

Rob Thomson sat down with Turner ahead of the season and expressed his thoughts and plans on Turner’s plate approach heading into the season. Thomson said he doesn’t need 25-30 homers out of Turner, though he can still hit them. Thomson wants a .380 on base percentage, and wants Turner to use the whole field and find consistency at the plate.

He’s doing exactly that:

This is a super telling quote from Rob Thomson to @AntSanPhilly on the type of approach he told Trea Turner he wants him to have offensively before the season. pic.twitter.com/tSphcTsfmm

— On Pattison (@OnPattison) May 3, 2025

Turner is hitting .307 this year in 34 games. He has 42 hits, 6 doubles, 13 RBIs, 8 stolen bases, and a .375 OBP. Yes, this is a small sample size. But Turner’s .375 OBP is higher than it’s ever been in Philadelphia. That means something.

The Phillies shortstop is hitting .397 over his last 16 games. That’s 27 for his last 68. A lot of those hits are singles, but this is the Turner that the Phillies needed.

Thomson stressed to Trea that the Phillies have the home run hitters, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. Turner popping 20 homers this year wouldn’t be a bad thing for the Phillies. But he will either hit leadoff against lefties, or second against righties for most of the season. Get on base, use your speed, and score runs. That’s what Thomson wants, and that’s what he’s getting.

Here’s what Turner had to say about his approach at the plate and recent hitting surge, from Todd Zolecki of MLB.com:

I’m just taking my hits, really. I feel like my two-strike hitting has been good. I’m hitting the ball the other way pretty good. I just need to start pulling it in the air. It was nice to see that happen. I was working on that quite a bit in the cage. Just get those mistakes and put a good swing on it.

The Phillies offense is finding itself once again. The team has won 8 of their last 10 games, and have scored 7+ runs in 7 of their last 10. It’s a combination of everything – Turner’s surge, Harper slowly finding the swing again, Alec Bohm getting back to his ways, and more.

But the Phillies didn’t sign Trea Turner to hit 40 home runs a year. They signed a contact-hitting, havoc-on-the-bases shortstop who can hit a ball out if he needs to. Turner is doing exactly what the Phillies need of him, and it’s paying off.