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Trea Turner not promised the SS position, says Dombrowski

🚦THE Philly sports newsletter

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John Foley & Philip Keidel
March 07, 2025

© Bill Streicher | 2024 Jun 29

Happy Friday! We’re one week closer to Phillies Opening Day.

In the meantime, we have more Flyers and Sixers losses to discuss.

In the email today:

👀 Dombrowski: 'There's no promise that Trea Turner would be our shortstop for the future'

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski joined the Sportsradio 94 WIP morning show on Thursday. During a wide-ranging discussion, Dombrowski expressed some interesting thoughts about Phillies SS Trea Turner:

"When we signed [Turner], we signed him as a shortstop. And we told him that he would be our shortstop, and we felt that way. But if we don't think Trea Turner is capable of playing good shortstop--and you have to remember it's defense and offense that combines there, too--no, we'd move him off of shortstop. That would be the way it is. Now he wouldn't per se like it, we wouldn't just wake up one day and say we're movin' ya. You do the proper steps. But no, there's no promise that he would be our shortstop for the future."

Dombrowski's comments are interesting on a number of levels.

It had been widely assumed among Phillies observers that Turner is locked in at the SS position, despite defensive metrics indicating that he's one of the worst-fielding shortstops in baseball. Turner posted negative 14 "defensive runs saved above average" according to Fangraphs in 2024, the second-lowest figure among all MLB players at the position. Prior to Thursday's discussion, however, many believed that the Phillies promised Turner that he would play his preferred position throughout the course of the 11-year, $300 million contract he signed in December 2022.

But if the Phils are open to moving Turner around the field, they unlock a tremendous amount of flexibility in their lineup. In addition to shortstop, Turner has experience at second base (91 career games) and center field (45 games).

Were Turner to move to the outfield, he could be the right-handed OF bat the team has been looking for among the Wes Wilsons and Austin Hayses of the world. The offense suddenly wouldn't be as reliant on Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler's ability to hit lefty pitching, or on Johan Rojas' development at the plate. Edmundo Sosa, for example, could handle a middle infield position on some days with Turner in center or left.

Some have also floated the idea of Turner swapping positions with sure-handed second baseman Bryson Stott to bolster the Phils' defense. Highly-touted prospect Aidan Miller, who has risen through the organization as a SS, may be able to stay there rather than transitioning to a 3B role. And the universe of free agent/trade targets available to the Phillies would greatly expand if the club is willing to move Turner around the field.

Turner's contract with the Phillies takes him through the 2033 season.

✈️ Jets exact revenge in dominant win over Flyers

This had to be the worry, what happened to the Flyers last night in South Philadelphia.

Five days earlier, the Flyers had beaten the Western Conference leaders in Winnipeg in a shootout. It would have been preferable if that upset had happened, say, a few weeks ago. Maybe the loss wouldn’t have been so fresh.

Five days later, though, the Jets clearly hadn’t forgotten.

The vibe surrounding this game and basically every other game in the NHL last night was subdued because the trade deadline is tonight. A lot of players were moved yesterday and even more are likely to relocate today.

During this game, the Jets’ starting goaltender was weirdly absent from the bench, leading to idle speculation. Goalies are notoriously flaky, though, so it’s tough to say exactly what was going on with Craig Hellebuyck.

Meanwhile, the Flyers (who at this point should definitely be sellers) had some of their more valuable talent out there risking injury in a game that the Flyers were never really in.

Um…OK.

The Jets scored two power play goals in the first period and never looked back. The final minutes included some E-A-G-L-E-S chants and a smattering of boos for the Orange and Black as the final horn sounded.

Matvei Michkov’s 20th goal of the season was the only bright spot in an otherwise long, quiet night for the Flyers.

Our colleague Anthony SanFilippo thinks the Flyers have a move in the works. Just not a trade.

Kolosov might be getting out of town just in time. The Flyers have lost three of four, and it’s anyone’s guess what the roster will look like come Saturday morning.

☘️ Celtics smash Sixers as Big 3 watch on

We are running out of ways to eulogize the undead Sixers. Actually, we ran out weeks ago.

Anyway, last night the Sixers went to Boston and trotted this lot out as the starting five in a nationally televised game against the defending world champions.

Jayson Tatum spent much of the first quarter on the defensive end hanging out by the top of the arc waiting for the Sixers to turn the ball over so he could run out for a dunk.

Tatum scored 35 points in 31 minutes to lead all scorers. Kelly Oubre Jr. led the Sixers with 27 points.

The Celtics won the first quarter by 11 points and led by 30 with about seven minutes left. This was another Sixers game where the garbage time minutes outnumbered the competitive minutes.

It was bad enough to see Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey in street clothes watching the Celtics disembowel the Sixers.

It got worse when this happened.

“too”

The Sixers still have (checks math) 20 games left in this regular season. Thankfully, this is the last they will see of the Celtics until the Eagles are playing again.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

Here’s the Phillies lineup from March 7, 2016.

📊 Poll

If Turner bats leadoff and Harper bats second, who should hit third?

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Results from Thursday:

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Saturday, March 8, 2025

  • Flyers vs. Kraken, 12:30 p.m. (ABC)

Sunday, March 9, 2025

  • Flyers vs. Devils, 1:00 p.m. (truTV)

  • Sixers vs. Jazz, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you Monday.

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