The Kid Who Stayed

The Driveway

Trea Turner was still in diapers when his father Mark would come home from work and find him in the driveway, ready to whip a ball at him and play catch until dark. The passion took hold early — year-round Florida weather, athletic parents, a kid from Boynton Beach who grew up a Marlins fan. He was lightly recruited out of Park Vista Community High School in Lake Worth. Pittsburgh took him in the 20th round in 2011. He went to North Carolina State instead, studied chemical engineering, and played three seasons of college ball.

By his freshman year at NC State, Turner could not get into local bars with teammates even carrying a fake ID. Bouncers routinely told him he looked about 12 and sent him home. In Washington, Anthony Rendon described him as skinny strong and joked that his lack of facial hair made him resemble a 12-year-old. Bryce Harper called him the Flash on the basepaths.

Two Hundred

On July 20, Turner hit his 200th career home run for the Philadelphia Phillies. The number gathered across 12 seasons and three teams — seven years in Washington, two with the Dodgers, four and counting in Philadelphia. San Diego drafted him 13th overall in 2014, signed him for $2.9 million, and he debuted in August 2015. He won a World Series with the Nationals in 2019 and has been an All-Star three times.

The home runs came alongside 332 stolen bases, 48 triples, a .293 average, and 300 doubles — the full offensive game of a shortstop who has logged 1,366 games in the big leagues.

He is 33, still at shortstop, 100 games into his fourth season in Philadelphia.

Reporting: TalkNats, The Philadelphia Inquirer, NC State Magazine. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.