It’s been a down year for Trea Turner. But the Phillies remain confident in their shortstop. He’ll bat second against the Marlins on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, despite questions about a potential reset day or a move down in the lineup. Don Mattingly said he did not give much thoug ht to sitting Turner. “Well, I really didn’t think about it today,” Mattingly said. “So I really wouldn’t need deliberation at all.” The conversation around town right now centers on Turner, the 32-year-old shortstop who won the National League batting title last year and is now enduring one of the biggest slumps of his major league career. Turner is batting .219 with a .598 OPS through a league-leading 288 at-bats. His OPS is the seventh lowest among 156 qualified hitters in the sport. His struggles are reminiscent of his first season in Philadelphia. After a hot 19-game stretch in 2023, Turner spent the next 88 games in a massive skid. He produced a .217/.270/.350 slash line in 365 at-bats from April 20 to August 4. He dropped as low as the eighth spot in the Phillies’ lineup. That preceded the infamous standing ovation game, when Turner homered and then took off as one of baseball’s hottest hitters. He batted .337 with a 1.057 OPS in the final 48 games. Turner said then that the key was gripping the bat softer and lowering his hands. His underlying metrics that year provided a sense of optimism. In 2026, the advanced numbers are not quite the same. He ranks in the bottom 25 percent of hitters in barrel rate, chase rate and walk rate. He is in the bottom 40 percent in hard-hit rate, whiff rate and strikeout rate. Interestingly enough, Turner is hitting .303 against four-seam fastballs, a pitch he sees nearly 30 percent of the time. But he has struggled badly against sinkers on the inner part of the plate, batting .203, and more recently has been pitched away often with offspeed. He is batting .180 against breaking pitches and .152 against other offspeed deliveries. He is not pulling the baseball like he has in the past. For a contact hitter, spraying the ball to all fields can be a strength. But it has hurt his numbers. His pull rate is down seven percent, and his opposite-field rate is at its highest in a full season. A lot of it has been soft contact the other way. What is also similar to three seasons ago? The underwhelming defense. That year, Turner posted minus-six outs above average. This year, he is already at minus-two, in the bottom ninth percentile, after ranking in the 99th percentile with 17 outs above average last season. Mattingly compared this stretch to Alec Bohm earlier in the season, when Bohm also stayed in the lineup through an extended rough patch. “It’s what we talked about earlier in the year with Bohmer, when everybody was ready to bench him and not ever play him again,” Mattingly said. “Guys hit. Trea’s a great player, and he’s going to be a great player for us.” Mattingly said he has not seriously considered moving Turner down in the order yet. “Not really. Not at this point,” Mattingly said. “If it gets to that point, then consider anything that’s going to help us win. But right now, everybody all of a sudden is talking about Trea today. Trea’s not the reason when we don’t score. He’s not the only reason when things like that happen.” The Phillies’ right-handed hitters have struggled this year as a group. And their offense will not fully take off until a top-of-the-order bat like Turner gets going. At his best, he is putting the ball in play with force, wreaking havoc on the basepaths and gobbling up everything hit to him. The speed is still there. Everything else has lagged behind. But Mattingly made one thing clear Monday: Turner is still central to what the Phillies believe they can be. “Trea’s a big piece of what we are, what we’re going to be, and if we’re going to be really successful, we’re going to need Trea,” Mattingly said. “For me, I’m not giving up on Trea. I’m not moving him right now.” That confidence, Mattingly said, is not just for show. “I want to show confidence because I feel confidence,” Mattingly said. “I wouldn’t say the things I say if I didn’t feel confident that Trea was going to find it, and be swinging more consistently and better as we go through the season.” For Mattingly, pulling Turner out of his usual spot would send the wrong message before the Phillies believe they have reached that point. “When you do certain things to guys, it basically tells them you don’t believe it,” Mattingly said. “And that’s where I’m not going.” ...read more read less