BALTIMORE – Sitting in the dugout in the second inning Monday afternoon, Justin Turner was locked in on Zach Eflin in preparation for his second at-bat when he was told to head into the clubhouse and call GM Ross Atkins. At 39, with nearly two decades in pro ball, he knew the deal, even if the experience of being traded mid-season for the first time was “a very foreign” one. He said some goodbyes in the dugout, learned of his destination – the Seattle Mariners – got on the phone and began planning a trip to Boston to meet his new team.
“It was unexpected,” he said outside the Blue Jays clubhouse as the first of two games Monday against the Orioles continued on the field, ending in an 11-5 Baltimore win. “I got a chance to talk to almost everyone, I didn’t get a chance to talk to the guys down in the bullpen, obviously, but just said thank you and how much of a pleasure it was to get to know everyone personally, not just on the on the field, but off the field as well and the families, and be grateful for the relationships.”
The trade, which included cash to Seattle, was the Blue Jays’ fourth since Friday – he’ll reconnect with reliever Yimi Garcia for a third time in their careers with the Mariners – and returned double-A outfielder R.J. Schreck.
A bat-first prospect with good on-base skills and some pop but an uncertain defensive future, the 24-year-old was a ninth-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2023 by the Mariners. After batting .261/.401/.464 in 78 games with 12 homers at high-A Everett, he was promoted to double-A Arkansas, where he’s gone 4-for-28 through his first eight games.
Between the two levels, he’s walked 61 times and struck out only 54 times in 378 plate appearances.
Still, when Turner signed a $13.5-million, one-year deal in January to hit behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the goal was to try and help the Blue Jays try to reach the playoffs for a fourth time in five seasons, not return a down-tier prospect to restock a barren system.
In 90 games, Turner hit .257/.351/.373 with six homers and 31 RBIs, running hot and cold around a viral infection that sapped him for much of May, although he’s turned it up of late.
“We all had a little bit different intentions on the way this season was going to go,” said Turner. “When it didn’t quite go that way, as a guy on an expiring contract, you expect that there’s a chance this could happen. … A million different things going through my mind on how all this is going to work. But definitely excited to go over there and try to make an impact on them, as I did here.”
Among the flood of thoughts on his mind is how his wife Kourtney and their three-week-old son, who was born in Toronto, will get to Seattle while his newborn awaits his passport.
“Hopefully, the ball is rolling on that, and we can get them over there,” he said.
As for why he and the Blue Jays find themselves in this situation when the expectations were so different, Turner didn’t have a firm answer.
“I don’t know, it was just some streakiness and slumps, myself included,” he said. “I had probably one of the worst months of my career in May after having a great April. I just didn’t really feel like it all came together. Not too many games where we are hitting on all three facets of the game, pitching, defence and offence. We get a good outing from our starter, we didn’t hit. We put up a bunch of runs, we give up some runs. For whatever reason, it didn’t go the way we wanted. That’s disappointing to me because that’s not what I came here for. I came here to help us win and make a post-season run. It feels like I let an entire country down, really.”
That’s very far from being all on him, of course, but now he gets a chance to help the Mariners, who are fighting for an American League West title.
He’d hoped to be pushing for an AL East crown with the Blue Jays, but the mark he’s left on the club will instead be more rooted in “the conversations and stories and experiences that hopefully get passed on throughout the game,” he said.
“There are all kinds of things that happen and guys ask me about this guy or that guy,” he continued. “Some of the legends that I played with, passing on some of the stories about them, that kind of helps keep them alive in the game. Hopefully, they soaked some of that stuff in.”
