Late Saturday afternoon, Justin Turner made a huge announcement on his Twitter and Instagram. He announced that he wasn’t going anywhere. He was here to stay in Los Angeles and to be honest, he should never play for another team. This came as some sort of a shock, as its unusual for a signing, especially Turner signing, to come from the player themselves. But we later found out the terms of the deal from Jeff Passan.
For weeks, even months, we heard that Dodgers were the favorite for Turner, as Turner preferred to stay home. But for some odd reason, the two parties could not come to an agreement when it came to contract terms. I say this, because I’m sure that Dodgers front office wanted him back just as much, if not more, than Justin wanted to stay. The one thing we heard about the “Justin Turner saga”, was that the two couldn’t come to an agreement when it came length of contract.
We heard that Turner wanted a 4 year deal, but the Dodgers only wanted to give him a 2 year deal. Now, if you were to ask a random person, if two sides are in a disagreement with one side wanting 4 and the other wanting 2, that random person would suggest, “why not meet in the middle and agree to 3”. Because that’s what I was saying. I get that Turner is 36 years old and committing to a contract that will run through his age 40 season isn’t ideal. I also understand from Turner’s perspective that he wants to play until he’s 40 and he doesn’t want to play for anyone else. To me, there was a simple solution. Dodgers didn’t want to give 4 year deal, and Turner didn’t want to accept a 2 year deal. My solution would’ve been to sign a 2 year deal with a vesting option for a 3rd year. This, in my eyes, would’ve been the best option because, if Turner is still playing at a top level after the 2 years, he most likely will reach his required stat in order for his vesting option to be vested. And that’s basically what happened.
The deal, instead of having a vesting option for a possible 3rd year, has a club option. I expect them to opt-in to the 3rd year, and if not I expect them to re-sign Turner in that off-season to a 1 or 2 year deal so he can finish his career as a Dodger. Why am I so confident that JT wants to end his career as a Dodger, well look at the tweets from Jon Heyman below:
It seems that the Dodgers were “outbid” by the Brewers. They even gave Turner the guarantee of a 3rd year, after offering him the same contract the Dodgers offered. But, JT didn’t want that. He wanted to stay in LA, and I’m glad he did.
I know JT was a “journeyman” prior to coming to the Dodgers, having played for the Orioles and Mets and being bounced around between AAA and MLB. But from the time he won the starting 3rd Base job in spring of 2014 to being one of the key pieces of the 2020 World Series run, Justin has proven that he’s a Dodger through-and-through, and should be a Dodger for life. I get not a lot people believe in morale and the importance it plays. But, as players stated in the World Series and after, but two important players were Kiké Hernandez and Justin Turner. Those two kept everyone lose, and let everyone be themselves. Kiké left to Boston for an everyday job (understandable), so we couldn’t let the other half and our clubhouse leader walk as well, as it would’ve been a great shot to our morale. All-in-all, I’m glad JT is staying for the foreseeable future, and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
