Forgot about Trea
Trea Turner (PHI): 3-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI.
Well, look who now leads the league in hits. Turner’s trio of knocks has raised his average to .305, and after hitting just one homer in his first 34 games, he has five round-trip shots in his last twelve.
Turner’s been drafted around the second-and-third-round turn for the last several years, with an ADP consistently in the 20-25 range. Famously, in 2023, his first year with the Phillies, Turner struggled with a .688 OPS until a home-crowd standing ovation ignited his season, where he finished with 26/30 in 691 Plate Appearances. A strained hammy put Turner on the shelf for about six weeks last year, but he still scored 88 runs in 121 games and came within a steal of a 20/20 season.
Still, Turner’s been quiet this year. With Schwarber pacing the league in homers and Bryce Harper always getting headlines, you could almost say he’s been forgotten. And though he’d been stealing bases at a better clip than the last few years, he was on pace to hit just twelve home runs.
Well, no more. With two bombs last night, Turner might have rediscovered his power. He went opposite field on the first one, mashing an up-and-away fastball from Bowden Francis over the right-center field wall (Francis would have a nightmare first inning, allowing six runs). For his follow-up act, Turner would again pounce on an upstairs fastball, this time pulling a hard line drive into the left field bullpen. Both taters were just over 100 mph off the bat, but connected at perfect launch angles to get them out of the yard.
Turner’s seen his OPS climb steadily each month this season, from .333 in March (okay, it was just two games) to .732 in April and .835 in May. Two games into June, he’s hitting .444 with a 1.222 SLG (again, a very small sample size) and hopefully reassuring his owners that 20 homers is still within reach. Throw in 40 steals and he’ll net a nice return on that 20-25 draft spot.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Tuesday
Bryce Harper (PHI): 1-3, HR, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB.
Harper hasn’t been on a baseball field since getting plunked by Spencer Strider last week, but he appears to be rust-proof. Harper had been getting plenty of time in the cage while on the shelf with the sore elbow, and his timing doesn’t look off at all. He continued the first-inning barrage against Bowden Francis by homering off a splitter that didn’t split, a line-drive shot at 104.9 mph to right-center. Long story short, he looks great—and may even benefit from the time away. Act accordingly.
Corbin Carroll (ARI): 3-4, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI, BB.
After a tremendous April where Carroll hit .289 with nine homers and five steals, things have cooled off over the last fifteen games. But though he’s scuffled to just a .164 average in that span, there’s no cause for concern. Carroll’s power has come around in a big way this season, to the point he looks like a different hitter. He’s smashing his career averages in Barrel Rate (more than double last year’s), EV metrics, and the result might be a 40-homer season. Both his homers last night were nukes—the first one, off Strider, went 438 feet; the second went 416. He might be striking out a bit more than last year, but the D-Backs don’t seem to mind.
Ketel Marte (ARI): 3-3, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB.
Not to be outdone by his teammate, Marte had a double-dong party of his own. According to Statcast, pitchers have been trying a new approach on Marte this season, throwing 10% fewer fastballs, whereas breaking balls have jumped from 23.2 to 33.6%. They may want to keep experimenting—Marte’s expected batting average is a 98th-percentile .318, and his K-rate has dropped remarkably from 18.2% to 12.2%. He’s also reached a career high barrel rate and xSLG. Following last year’s resurgence, Marte continues to be an absolute stud.
Max Muncy (LAD): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI.
Two-homer nights were very popular on Tuesday, as Muncy got into a pair and is riding a heck of a streak. We’ve profiled Muncy before in this space, noting that he’s been a different player since he got new glasses to correct his astigmatism. The eyewear still seems to be working, as he launched an absolute torpedo off Tylor Megill in the first inning, 108 mph into the LA sky. In a 5-4 game in the ninth, Muncy would tie things up with another moonshot, this time at 109.8 mph. It’s easy to say ‘it’s all because of the glasses’, but if you look at Muncy’s decision-making since he started wearing them in early May, it appears to be just that simple.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (NYY): 2-3, HR, 2 R, RBI.
Jazz was struggling mightily ahead of his injury, batting just .151 in April with 35 K’s in 93 at-bats and just seven XBH’s. Some time on the shelf to nurse his oblique strain might have been what he needed to right the ship, as he looked all the way back by breaking a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was one of those short-porch Yankee Stadium homers, but he’ll take it. Chisholm added another base hit, though it was an unimpressive flare to left that plopped between the infield and outfield. Still, he raised his season average by 13 points, and hopefully, this is the start of a turnaround. Watch the steals, though—Chisholm had 40 bags last year but sits at just six in 2025, and Statcast is clocking his sprint speed at almost 2 f/s slower than last year.
Colton Cowser (BAL): 1-3, HR, R, RBI.
It was a popular night for players to return from the IL and hit home runs. Cowser has been sorely missed by an Orioles team that’s massively underachieved this season, as he fractured his thumb in the third game on March 30th. After more than 60 days away, Cowser started in Center Field and batted sixth. In his first at-bat against George Kirby, Cowser just got under one, hitting a 101.8 mph fly ball to the deeper part of the outfield. He’d have better success in his third appearance, cranking a 95-mph fastball to left for an opposite-field bomb. If anyone dropped him during his extended IL stint, he belongs on your team.
Michael Busch (CHC): 3-4, 3B, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB.
A famously streaky hitter in his young MLB career, Bush might be coming into another heater. But he’s also been more consistent this season by showing gains in his Hard-Hit and Barrel Rates with a 4.2% lower K-rate. He’s still going to get platooned consistently (a .208 SLG against lefties will do that), but he’s reached base in 8-of-9 plate appearances over his last two games, with a pair of dingers and a triple (it’s his third triple of the year; he had just two last year). His OPS is up to .895, good for ninth in the National League, and he’s getting on base 37.6% of the time with an 11.2% Walk Rate.
Addison Barger (TOR): 2-4, HR, R, 2 RBI.
Barger’s been a hot name on the waiver wire this past week, hitting .350 with three homers in his last seven games. Truth is, he’s been hot for a month. And it’s no fluke—Barger’s metrics are elite. He’s got an Average EV of 95.1 mph, good for 99th percentile. He’s got a 55.9% Hard-Hit Rate, 97th percentile. And while he’s hitting .268, his expected BA is a 95th-percentile .306. Drafted in the sixth round out of high school in 2018, Barger had some solid seasons in the Minors a few years ago (including 26 homers in 2022) but batted just .197 when he finally made it to the Show last season. Injuries have played a role, as he’s only topped 120 games in a season once. But now that he’s getting everyday ABs with Toronto (and his playing time should be even more secure with Daulton Varsho on the IL), he seems to be getting better with every game. If you haven’t bought in yet, you should.
Jac Caglianone (KCR): 0-5.
Making his Major League debut, Cags batted sixth in the lineup after Salvador Perez. He had several solid at-bats but unfortunately kept hitting the ball to Victor Scott II and Nolan Arenado, both elite defenders. In his first appearance, Caglianone laced a ball to deep center field, but Scott ran it down and made a leaping catch near the track. Leading off a few innings later, Cags took an outside pitch the other way (at 112 mph!), but Arenado was able to swallow it up and throw him out. Arenado would again rob Jac of his first MLB hit by backhanding a slow roller. So while the box score shows a bunch of zeroes, the Royals’ newest rookie might’ve had a 3-5 night in AAA. Welcome to the Majors, kid. Still, the impressive rookie showed both contact and power skills by hitting four out of five balls hard, didn’t whiff on a single pitch, and averaged 97.3 mph on his EV. Good things will come.
