Phillies

Trea Turner is Playing Elite, All-Around Baseball in 2025

By Luke Arcaini

Published: Jun 17th, 2025 · 11:27 AM EDT

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Remember the guy that radio hosts and fans wanted to bench for Edmundo Sosa back in April? Well, he leads the National League in hits.

Trea Turner is having his best season as a Phillie through the first 70 games of 2025. He’s slashing .306/.364/.455 with an .819 OPS. He’s sporting a 2.2 WAR through 70 games, which is on pace to break his 2023 career-high with the Phillies by an entire point.

Turner has 15 doubles, has already stolen 19 bases, and has been the driving force of the Phillies’ offense this entire season. Nobody, other than Kyle Schwarber, is having a better year at the plate. Nobody on the team, including Schwarber, is having a more consistent year at the dish.

That’s what Phillies fans asked of Turner. They didn’t ask for a 1.100 OPS with 45 home runs. They asked for consistency. Get on base, stay hot at the plate, steal bases, and be the $300M player that was signed two years ago.

Turner has a .942 OPS over the last 30 days, a .982 OPS over the last 15 days, and a 1.048 OPS over the last seven days. He’s hitting .328 in June with a .391 on base percentage. He has yet to hit under .290 in a month in 2025.

The Bryson Stott leadoff experiment didn’t work how the Phillies wanted it to. It was serviceable for a month or so, but with Stott struggling, along with almost the entire Phillies offense, it was time to make a full-time change. Turner was leading off earlier in the year against lefties, but he’s taken over the leadoff spot full time now, and it’s paid off. Turner is batting .330 with 6 doubles, 2 triples, and just 18 strikeouts in 112 leadoff at-bats in 2025.

What’s worked? Well for one, the Phillies found the old Trea Turner again. But Turner and Rob Thomson’s preseason plan is in full force, and it’s given this Phillies team consistency at the top of the lineup.

Rob Thomson told Trea Turner before the season started that he didn’t need him to hit 35 home runs. He wanted Trea to have a .380 on base percentage this season. Get on base, cause havoc on the bases, and play good enough defense. He’s done that.

There’s a lot of talk about Trea Turner’s defense over the first three years of his contract, and rightfully so (for the first two years). But Turner has improved defensively at a high clip in 2025 compared to the two years before. Turner is in the 87th percentile in outs above average (OAA) with 3. He holds a .980 fielding percentage this year. His fielding percentage in 2024 was .962, and .960 in 2023.

He’s playing shortstop the best he’s ever played the position. Yes, he still makes mistakes. His tags aren’t the best, and he doesn’t have the best arm strength across the league. But his range has improved this year. He’s making plays that he had no chance of making in the first two years of his contract.

Even the advanced metric show how good of a season Turner is having, especially compared to his the previous two years. His strikeout percentage is his lowest as a Phillie. His walk percentage is his highest as a Phillie. Turner has never been as comfortable at the plate in Philadelphia than he is right now.

Turner is becoming more underrated in Philadelphia as the days go on. He’s now tied with Schwarber for the team-lead in WAR. The Phillis have been begging for their “Big 2” to officially turn into a “Big 3.” Turner has shown flashes. Some really good months, some other bad stretches.

No, he’s not a bust. No, he shouldn’t move to centerfield. He should stay exactly where he is, because who knows where this team would be without Trea Turner in 2025.