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Trea Turner 2020 Outlook: Five-Category Contributions Keep Him Among Elite
5 years agoWashington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner didn't have his best statistical season in 2019 by any measure but he's too busy celebrating a championship to care. The Nats made an unexpected run through the postseason partly thanks to Turner, although his .233 average and three RBI in 17 games didn't help much. That doesn't matter to fantasy owners, though. In the regular season, Turner batted a strong .298 and ranked among the league leaders in steals for the fourth year in a row with 35 SB. His RBI total did drop from 73 to 57 but that can mainly be attributed to playing 40 fewer games due to an early-season finger injury.
Turner is still a top-10 pick in fantasy leagues because his high average and steal totals, in an era where both categories have been trending downward league-wide, remain among the best in MLB. If there are any concerns, it might be the loss of Anthony Rendon in the lineup behind him affecting his run-scoring ceiling. Still, if Turner manages to play a full season's worth of games as he did in 2018, he could actually deliver a higher return on investment than he did last season. Turner's injury last year was fluky, so he should be considered one of the safest first-round picks in 2020.
