Phillies' Dave Dombrowski Sends Out Strong Message on Trea Turner

The Philadelphia Phillies' 2026 season was one of the more interesting in recent memory, with the team having very mixed results.

After overcoming a slow start to the season, the Phillies were able to become one of the top teams in baseball. But a poor finish to the year saw Philadelphia come back down to earth, with the team being bounced in the wild-card series of the playoffs.

Philadelphia saw a managerial change this season, replacing Rob Thomson with Don Mattingly partway through the year. This seemed to help the team, but in the end, the Phillies couldn't overcome a struggling roster.

Multiple players on the Phillies team had down years, with star shortstop Trea Turner having one of the more troubling seasons. 2026 was the worst year for Turner in the major leagues since his rookie season, with the veteran struggling both at the plate and on defense.

For the year, Turner hit .242 with 19 home runs, 58 RBIs, and 21 stolen bases, while posting an OPS of .675. Turner struggled to find consistency at the plate, and it hurt the Phillies.

But he also became a liability at shortstop for the team, and there have now been questions about a possible position change this offseason. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke about the upcoming winter, telling Turner that he has to play better going forward.

The big problem for the Phillies is that Turner remains under contract for seven more seasons, with him being scheduled to make $27.2 million per year. Even if Philadelphia wanted to move on from Turner, no team is going to take on that contract, giving the Phillies limited options with the veteran.

All Philadelphia can do is hope for the best when it comes to Turner, believing that he can turn his career back around. But if he can't the Phillies could be in some real trouble going forward with the infielder.

Before the Phillies signed him to his massive contract a few years ago, other teams were worried that Turner would regress at shortstop, limiting what they offered him. But Philadelphia wanted to make a splash move, adding what was an All-Star talent to the lineup.

Now the move looks like it could really backfire on the team, but Turner does still have talent left in him to make the changes. Philadelphia could elect to send him to the outfield potentially as well, making this offseason one of the biggest in recent memory for the organization.