Major League Baseball Washington Nationals’ center fielder Trea Turner was named the National League Rookie of the Month for. The former Wolfpack star put up impressive numbers in his first full month as a big leaguer, slashing .357/.366/.571 with five home runs and 15 RBIs in 28 games in August. In addition to his big numbers with the bat Turner also stole 11 bases and scored 27 runs. Turner’s production helped lead the Nationals to a 17-11 record in August, extending their division lead over the New York Mets to 9.0 games at the turn of the month.
The award comes as the first in Turner’s young MLB career, but is not the first accolade he has collected as a baseball player. As a sophomore at NC State, Turner was named a second-team All-American by Perfect Game and was named a third-team All-American by both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Baseball America. Turner was also named to the All-ACC first team. However, Turner is still excited to win this award, especially since it comes at the Major League level.
“It’s always special when you receive an award,” Turner told Bill Ladson with MLB.com. “Up here in the big leagues is special. You always dream about trying to be the best. It feels good. I feel excited about the rest of the season.”
Turner joins Ryan Church (May, 2005) and Bryce Harper (May and September, 2012) as the only Nationals to win Rookie of the Month since the team relocated to Washington in 2005. Turner also scratched his name into the Nationals’ record books, as his 45 hits were the most ever by a Nationals rookie in one month, and only two hits shy of Daniel Murphy’s overall team record. Turner’s 27 runs also broke the Nationals’ rookie record.
Turner was impressive, especially when compared to the other rookies of the league. His .357 average in August was the highest among qualifying rookies, a full 27 points higher than the Dodgers’ Corey Seager, who finished second. Turner’s 27 runs tied David Dahl of the Rockies for the most among NL rookies, and his 45 hits lead all NL players. The 11 bases Turner stole in August also put him in a tie atop the leaderboard of NL rookies, with the Brewer’s Keon Broxton and Travis Jankowski of the Padres.
The future is bright for Turner and this very well could be the first of many awards and accolades in his MLB career. However, one award he will most likely not be winning is the Rookie of the Year. Turner was not permanently called up to the Nationals until July 9, and the three months he missed at the beginning of the year will likely cost him any chance at the award, especially considering the year Seager is putting together for the Dodgers.
Seager is having a great year but Turner’s season may be better. Turner is batting .354 on the season compared to Seager’s .313, albeit with a much smaller sample size. Turner also has more triples and stolen bases than Seager does, while playing in 85 fewer games.
Turner played shortstop at State, and came up through the minors playing both second base and shortstop. However, the Nationals have an MVP candidate in Murphy playing every day at second base, and two shortstops are already sharing starting time in Stephen Drew and Danny Espinosa. To get his bat in the lineup on a daily basis, manager Dusty Baker had Turner start playing center field.
Turner played his first game in center on July 26 against the Indians, and took over the starting center field duties a month later on Aug. 20 against Atlanta. The switch allowed Turner to become an everyday feature in the starting lineup and also filled the need for an offensively productive center fielder that the Nationals have had all season.
With Turner’s offensive outbreak to go along with MVP-caliber numbers from Murphy and the always dangerous Harper in the lineup, the Nationals look poised to make a deep run into late October. With the second-best pitching staff ERA in baseball, behind only the Chicago Cubs, the Nationals bring a healthy balance of offensive production and pitching into the playoffs. The Cubs seem to be the clear favorite to win it all, but with Turner leading the offensive charge, the Nationals may have something to say about that.
