Trea Turner of the Philadelphia Phillies, a shortstop, is the player in Major League Baseball who should run the most in 2024.
At the very least, MLB.com is arguing that.
In a recent article titled “10 players who should run more in 2024,” the website highlighted ten players who, well, it feels should.
The theory is that now that teams are more accustomed to the rule changes—which include the pitch clock, bigger bases, and an increasing emphasis on speed—they will try to run more.
Turner’s offensive starting slowness did not affect his baserunning or steals capabilities, though. Had his bat developed more quickly, he might have finished the season as a 30/30 player.
In the end, he finished with 30 stolen bases and 26 home runs. Turner is now a productive base stealer who has always been. For his career, he has 260. He has led the National League in base stealing twice and has stolen at least 30 bases six times.
But he’s never achieved the kind of excellence he did with the Phillies last season. Turner stole thirty bases without ever being detected.
In 2024, perfection won’t be required. But because of his exceptional baserunning speed—his 30.3 feet per second sprint time was among the top five in the Majors, according to MLB—he may be able to surpass his 46-run career best, which he hit in 2017 while playing for Washington.
Nothing would please Turner more than to start the season strong with his bat. He finished with a decent slash line of.266/.320/.459/.778 with 76 RBI despite his dip at the plate.