Turner dealt to Seattle for Minor League OF RJ Schreck
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BALTIMORE -- The Blue Jays are back in business, trading Justin Turner to the Mariners in their fourth trade of the Deadline season.
In return, the Blue Jays received outfielder RJ Schreck, previously ranked as the Mariners¡¯ No. 29 prospect. They are also sending cash considerations to the Mariners in the deal.
¡°Coming over here to the Blue Jays, I had -- we all had -- different intentions on how the season was going to go,¡± Turner said after being pulled in the second inning of of Monday¡¯s 11-5 loss in the opener of a doubleheader in Baltimore. ¡°When it didn¡¯t quite go that way, as a guy on an expiring contract, you kind of expected there was a chance this could happen. This is the first time in my career I¡¯ve been traded in the middle of a season, so it¡¯s very foreign to me and there are a million different things going through my mind.¡±
TRADE DETAILS:
Blue Jays get: OF RJ Schreck
Mariners get: 1B/DH Justin Turner
This is the Blue Jays¡¯ second deal with the Mariners this week after they sent reliever Yimi Garc¨ªa to Seattle for outfielder Jonatan Clase, now ranked as Toronto¡¯s No. 7 prospect, and catcher Jacob Sharp. The Blue Jays have also traded reliever Nate Pearson to the Cubs and catcher Danny Jansen to the Red Sox, with more deals expected before 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
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Turner came to Toronto on a one-year, $13 million deal, this organization betting that his ageless bat had one season left in it. The 39-year-old hit .257 with a .724 OPS over 90 games.
Turner referenced his own streaky play alongside the team¡¯s, particularly the month of May, when he hit .111 with a .349 OPS while dealing with an illness in between. Turner bounced back with a fantastic June and had been swinging the bat well lately, but with the Blue Jays well out of the postseason race, he knew a move could be coming.
¡°For whatever reason, it didn¡¯t go the way we wanted,¡± Turner said. ¡°That¡¯s disappointing to me because that¡¯s not what I came here for. I came here to help us win and make a postseason run. It feels like I let an entire country down, really.¡±
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Turner¡¯s self-critique is a bit harsh, but a veteran of his stature wanted to be part of the solution, to reach the postseason he¡¯d become so familiar with over the years. Before leaving the stadium to meet the Mariners in Boston, though, Turner had high praise for the Blue Jays organization.
¡°It was fantastic from start to finish,¡± Turner said. ¡°The people are amazing. The genuine niceness of the people in Toronto did not go unseen. This is a first-class organization. The facilities, everything they did to Rogers Centre and the [player development complex in Dunedin, Fla.] are off the charts, first-class at every level.¡±
Money is a factor in this deal, too, as Turner is still due approximately $4.3 million for the rest of the season, some of which will be covered by the cash considerations in the deal. Even for an organization that¡¯s spent freely in recent years, this could help the Blue Jays¡¯ broader financial picture as they attempt to load up and compete again in ¡®25.
Schreck was a ninth-round Draft pick of the Mariners a year ago out of Vanderbilt. He started his career at Duke, but had an additional year of eligibility due to the COVID year and transferred, meaning he was an older draftee, and is 24 now.
He¡¯d recently been promoted to Double-A and hadn¡¯t found his groove yet, but between the two levels this season he¡¯s batting .250 with 12 home runs and an .836 OPS. He¡¯s a corner outfielder and doesn¡¯t necessarily have a standout trait, but with more walks (61) than strikeouts (54) this season and some pop to show, there¡¯s something to work with. He also joins a rapidly changing prospect depth group in the outfield, which has recently added Clase and Yohendrick Pinango, their new No. 24 prospect.
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In the short term, trading Turner frees up the DH spot for the Blue Jays down the stretch, giving manager John Schneider every opportunity to feed at-bats to young players like Addison Barger, Spencer Horwitz and Leo Jim¨¦nez. Barger could be the biggest benefactor here, as he was still fighting to get regular playing time. Barger has exciting potential, but the Blue Jays need to see him put it together consistently at the Major League level, so that door is now wide open.
The Blue Jays are still expected to deal starter Yusei Kikuchi before Tuesday¡¯s Deadline while others, such as reliever Chad Green, continue to generate interest as the market plays out.