Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Dave Roberts Shares his Thoughts on Trea Turner’s Postseason Struggles

Baseball is hard. Baseball can humble you quickly. And in the case of Trea Turner, after winning the batting title in the regular season, it’s safe to say that no one was expecting this for the Dodger infielder this postseason.

In 10 games this October, Turner has just 8 hits in 44 at-bats (.167). Moreover, he’s taken no walks while striking out 10 times and grounding in to 2 double plays.



Again, not the way anyone was expecting it to go for the All-Star.

Dave Roberts was asked about the extended struggles of the second baseman. In short, he said what we all already knew.

Trea… he’s trying to figure some things out.

BREAKING NEWS!

As evidenced by the stats above, Turner has fully been in swing mode all postseason long. He’s rarely taken good at-bats nor has he shown much interest in adjusting his pull-heavy approach. These points are seemingly something Roberts had on his mind as well.

He’s an aggressive hitter. I just want him to continue to be aggressive to his zone and if it’s not there, take his base. Use all fields like he can do.

With the season on the line tonight, it may behoove Doc to consider moving Turner down in the lineup in an effort to get some hotter hitters in position to contribute with runners on base earlier in the game. But with Justin Turner now out for the postseason, and Max Muncy still out, that might not be overly in the realm of likelihood.

The Dodgers will look to tap into some magic again down 3-1 against the Braves.

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

36 Comments

  1. Agreed. But which “hotter hitters” are you thinking? We can’t just bat Belli, Taylor, Seager and Betts (Seager and Betts being hot and cold at best).

    1. Seriously….

      Plus losing JT is not as bad as it seems since he was already hurting. Replacing an .097 average in pretty easy to do….. then again, it is the Dodgers….

      MANNY MOTA!

  2. There are not a lot of levers to pull with this offense at this point. If not for the guy that half the readers here didn’t even want on the playoff roster we’d already be talking about off season roster moves.

    Would you go with something like: Betts, Seager, Belli, Smith, Taylor, Pollock, Lux, Turner? WTF, I guess. Can’t hurt.

    1. I had it Betts, Seager, Smith, Bellinger, Pollock, Taylor, Turner, Pujols, Kelly for what it’s worth. Holding out hope for a miracle but not expecting one. Vibe not good.

        1. Maybe, just maybe, Roberts has lost the clubhouse and they don’t give a rats a**.

          Could be their way of trying to get DR replaced…… ANYTHING is possible these days when the players run almost everything and many are prima donna’s in their own right.

          Boys, it’s a game.

          Play for pride….

          1. Doug, unfortunately we don’t have any way of knowing whether or not DR has lost the clubhouse. Only time will tell us. But from the player interviews I’ve seen, at least from my perspective, they don’t appear to be very hungry. They seem to be rather complacent. That’s what I find so disturbing. Maybe I’m wrong. Tonight we shall know more.

          2. To me anyway, they appear to be just going through the motions. With the exception of maybe the ending of game 3.

          3. 4Life….

            Totally agree, the fire is gone.

            We have All Stars at almost every position, no way they all go into a funk at the same time, over a long period of time.

            Tonights game will speak volumes.

          4. I’m thinking 1919 Black Sox! But I’m a conspiracy nut anyway lol.

          5. I mean CT3 is way too smart to get caught where he did game 1. I’m sorry.

  3. I have a fix for Trae… stop swinging at garbage. He’s swinging at stuff that’s bouncing 6 inches in front of the plate, and is 4+ balls off the plate. He looks unnerved and not steady at the plate.

    1. John, that would be a good start. The thing that irks me is that, at least outwardly, it doesn’t appear to be bothering him. Look I’m sure he’s not happy about it, but, I’m just not seeing the same level of intensity from the boys in blue as with the Braves. I have unfortunately found myself reaching for my pen.

  4. At this point, Bellinger needs to be moved up to 3rd or 4th in the batting order (if 4th, Smith bats 3rd). I could see Roberts moving Bellinger up but not dropping Trea Turner down to 8th. He should, but he won’t. Roberts would be more likely to move Turner to 6th followed by Pollock/Lux. Bellinger could be the difference maker in extending the season. Have to do something. The offense looks done otherwise.

  5. Start with umpires calling strikes strikes an balls balls; then take your walks when they don’t throw you strikes. I really like Justin Turner but he can’t run and has a average arm at best. Might be time to move on and I say that with regret. In future have t turner learn 3rd or move over Seager, and have turner at SS an Lux at 2nd or 3rd. Just my opinion. Go Dodgers!

    1. Tom, next year’s Dodgers will look very different. Super challenging off-season for the FO. 6 pending free agents. Not all can be re-signed. Lots of possibilities and will have to see how it all shakes out.

      1. The one area that really needs to be addressed in the off-season is the bench. They really need some solid players, not those who for the most part pass thru the waiver system and are ‘available’ to the Dodgers who would have almost the last pick.

        I suggest that our new player/manager be Albert P. Try the p/m for 1 year. I think Albert still can bring it in certain situations…..

        I think the FO would treat AP a lot different than DR.

          1. At some point, Albert will be a ML manager.

            I see no reason he cuts his teeth in the minor leagues. He garners too much respect from both players to management.

            My thinking is somewhat out of the box, but hey, why no give it a shot with AP whom I feel is ML manager ‘ready’. Plus, he gets to continue his quest for a few milestones that are within his reach. And he is great PR for the Dodger organization.

            Give Albert this roster, with some tinkering, I think he comes out looking great, Dodgers too.

    2. Seager will leave as a FA in a couple days. After seeing how this team was run by Freidman and Roberts as far as lineup and in game decisions , available players just may not want to play here but WSS.. Not an ideal situation for tonight’s game being a BP game but IIWII.

  6. If Seager leaves then I wish him well. I think we can do better at SS. We already have a good candidate for the position. Seager has his moments with the bat but defensively limited coverage. Keep Kershaw if he will accept 4th or 5th man in the rotation money. Let Price go. Try to keep most of the bullpen. Try an get our old catcher and former Angel manager to return to Dodger Blue. Find a bat that can play 3rd. Should mlb go to DH then we have a few that can fill in. Not counting them out for this season but I am a half glass full guy. I’m 64 am still bleed dodger blue.

    1. Turn Smith into a 3Bman! He rakes but is a disaster behind the dish. Seager is a brick wall with holes in it at SS, zero range. He will be too expensive to re-sign anyway. Concur Price should go. Slot Trea at SS and Lux at 2b. CT3 needs to be re-signed. See if the D-bags will take Pollock back for Ketel Marte.

      1. If Freddie Freeman chooses not to resign with Atlanta, we could sign him. We could also sign Kris Bryant.

      2. Taylor needs to be resigned…. the Kike situation in its’ present form.

        Give Trea T a year at SS after Seager leaves, re-evaluate after next season.

        Dump Pollock…. Get a stud LF

        DH coming to NL – A high end p/u with JT moving into that slot many times

        A strong veteran bench

        Next year….

        BETTS – RF
        BELLI – CF
        XX – LF
        MUNCY – 1B
        LUX – 2B
        TURNER – SS
        TURNER – 3B (WITH AN * FOR THE UPCOMING DH)
        SMITH – C
        XX – DH

        Pitching – TBD (Kershaw is a lifetime Dodger, bring him back as 4 or 5 on the backend of the rotation).

        That’s my proposed fix for next year, BUT we still have games to play this year. Let’s rock it tonight boys!

        1. I want Smith at 3B, the kid rakes but is doing a bad impersonation of a catcher.

          1. Understand….

            Smith did come up thru the minors as defense first, his hitting was horrible…. Give him a good catching coach. Easy fix.

            Needs to use his body more to block WP/PB….. uses the ‘glove only’ approach too much.

          2. I find that unbelievable at least from what I’ve seen. Besides pitching, I spent one year with the tools of ignorance. Some might understand the reference.

  7. We could sure use JOC and KIKI right now. Other than Pujols, the bench is very weak this year. I thought we would for sure pick Joc up at the trading deadline, but Atlanta got him earlier. A big miss that the front office didn’t get bench help at the trade deadline. Atlanta picked up Rosario for nothing from Cleveland. Kudos to Atlanta GM for a job well done, including loading up on lefthanders in their bullpen to counter our anemic offense. Dodgers win tonight, but don’t see them winning two in Atlanta. Atlanta’s offense if on fire right now.

    1. DJR, IMHO after seeing what happened in game 5, I’m seeing things a bit different. I now see Dodgers going, as one fan put it, General Sherman on them lol. Whoever came up with that one, kudos!

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