Justin Turner stays with the Dodgers for a two-year deal, with 34 million dollars

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Third baseman Justin Turner will remain with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he announced on Twitter on Saturday.

Turner’s deal is two years, with $ 34 million guaranteed, and includes a third-year club option, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Turner, 36, became a free agent when his four-year, $ 64 million contract expired following the October Dodgers’ World Series championship. A member of the Dodgers since 2014, Turner is the longest-serving player on the team and the third longest overall, behind Clayton Kershaw (2008) and Kenley Jansen (2010).

Turner was one of many in the first half of his major league career. The New York Mets did not bid him in December 2013, remained unsigned for the next two months and then agreed to a minor league deal with the Dodgers. At the age of 29, he began to establish himself as the third most productive goalkeeper in the game.

Turner managed .297 / .378 / .508 in 2015-2019, amassing 105 home runs, 147 doubles and 21.9 FanGraphs winning the replacement in 645 games in the regular season. He formed an All-Star team, finished in the top 10 in the National League MVP vote twice and set the tone for the Dodgers’ hitting philosophy as their most consistent performer.

Along the way, Turner contributed some memorable postseason moments, most notably with his homer against the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the 2017 National League Championship. According to ESPN statistics and information, he ranks first in Dodgers post-season history in shots (79), home runs (12), runs (40) and RBIs (41).

His greatest achievement finally came last season, when Turner – a lifelong Dodgers fan who grew up in Lakewood, California, and identifies Kirk Gibson’s famous pinch homer as his oldest memory. his baseball – helped the franchise to its first championship in over 30 years. years.

Turner posted 1,066 OPS in six World Series games against the Tampa Bay Rays, but the culmination of his career was turbulent after the major leagues informed the Dodgers in later stages of a possible turning point that Turner tested positive for. COVID-19.

Turner, the Dodgers’ representative, was withdrawn at the beginning of the eighth half and was not on the field to celebrate the end. But he broke protocol and re-entered the field to take pictures of the World Series trophy and was seen around his teammates without a mask, drawing anger from MLB officials and wild criticism from people across the country. MLB finally decided not to discipline him.

ESPN’s Alden González contributed to this report.

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