You Can Spell 'Brice Turang' Without 'MVP', But Why Bother?

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Strictly speaking, we've seen Brewers hitters quite a bit hotter than Brice Turang is right now. After 22 games, the second baseman is batting .300/.437/.571, which is mightily impressive, but during his bid to win back-to-back National League MVP Awards, Christian Yelich had stretches of this length during which his OPS eclipsed 1.500. It's not just Yelich (or famously raucous runs like the Linsanity version of Eric Thames), either. Keston Hiura had a stretch this long that was hotter. So did Yasmani Grandal. So did Gerardo Parra, way back in 2015. Try not to let yourself forget that this is still only three and a half weeks of baseball, and that Turang has been great, but human.

That said: how long has it been since you felt as good watching a Brewers hitter at bat as you do when watching Turang right now? You probably do have to drift back to the pre-pandemic edition of Yelich. It's not just results, right now. Turang's process feels immaculate, and incorruptible. That's not quite the reality; baseball will always humble you. But that's how it feels. Turang's game has gotten better each year of his career, and this season, the improvements are more pronounced than ever.

First, of course, there's the bat path. No hitter in baseball has increased the average tilt of their swing more from 2025 to 2026 than has Turang—who had also increased his average tilt from 2023 to 2024, and from 2024 to 2025. He came into the league as a flat swinger, according to Statcast (29°, against a league average of roughly 32°), but he's now quite steep in his average approach to the ball (36°). It's a subtle-sounding difference, and it can be hard to see from one swing to the next, because hitters naturally adjust their swings based on what they're trying to do; what pitch type they anticipate, and what type they see out of the hand; and where the pitch is. To isolate it, then, let's look at four swings Turang has put on 1-0 four-seam fastballs in the middle vertical band of the zone, from right-handed pitchers with roughly average velocity—one each from 2023 through this year.

Here's the 2023 case for study.

I picked one of the rare times that Turang let it eat that year. Partially, that's because he didn't see that many pitches that fit these criteria that year, and partially, it's so we can all marvel at what a wandering babe he was back then. This really feels like looking at home movies of your kid, already, doesn't it? That version of Turang got beaten pretty easily by even pedestrian heat; there's a reason he hit .218/.285/.300 that season.

Ok, here's 2024.

This ia a version of Turang that has learned to take an assertive hack without finding himself off-balance, but the limitations on his power are obvious here. He gets a better piece of this pitch, but still fouls off something hittable, in an advantage count.

On to 2025.

I hope you can see some differences between those two clips. They're small, to be sure, but they're there. Turang found more bat speed in 2025, and took a more dangerous hack. He still fouled the ball off to the left side, but it was less because he was late and more because he was slashing through the ball, if you will, missing it slightly off the upper and outer side of the barrel.

Now, let's look at a similar pitch earlier this year.

Admittedly, choosing a homer for comparison serves my argument well, but it's part of the point I'm making. Turang has gotten much more efficient with the barrel this season, thanks to his improved bat path. At every level of the zone height-wise, his swing is steeper than it was even late last year, when he was starting to generate power. He's making a meaningfully different move to the baseball than he used to. 

To help you see that better, I've taken still frames of the moment just before his bat gets to the ball on each of the pitches above. I've also highlighted his bat position in each. Notice that the lines get both steeper (more tilt in the swing) and longer (he's getting the barrel out more before the ball arrives) as we move from the past to the present.

Turang's raw, Statcast-reported bat speed is not meaningfully up this year, but the fact that it's almost exactly where it's been in the past with a steeper plane amounts to a boost in bat speed. He's not pulling the ball very much this season, but when you swing with a steeper bat path, you leave yourself more ways to make solid contact to the opposite field, if you don't get around the ball and yank it to the pull field. That's especially true for left-handed hitters, and it's something Pat Murphy and Brewers coaches have been nudging Turang toward understanding since this time last year.

Selectivity has also paid off for Turang. The strike zone is a bit smaller this year, which has contributed to a drop in the share of pitches he sees being in the zone. Last season, 52.7% of opponents' pitches to Turang were in the zone. This year, that number is down to 46.4%. Accordingly. Turang's swing rate (which was just under 48% in 2023 and 2024) has dropped, from 44.3% in 2025 to 36.7%. Thence come his incredible 17 walks in 88 trips to the plate, with both that total and his walks-inflated .437 OBP ranking second in the National League.

Meanwhile, the Brewers are doing exactly what they did last year with their infield defense, funneling as many balls into Turang's sphere of influence as possible, and he's continued to justify their faith. You can pick nits with his game—his speed is slightly diminished, and he's gotten more conservative on the bases; he has yet to utilize the ABS challenge system, missing a few chances to better his position within an at-bat—but it would seem ungrateful to do so. Turang has made a series of adjustments that make him one of the toughest outs in baseball, partially because he's also gotten more dangerous at the plate. Unlike hitters who have been similarly hot in recent memory, though, Turang also delivers baserunning and defensive value. He's carrying the Brewers offense, during a stretch in which the team is missing three of the five hitters on whom they were most relying coming into the season. He had one star turn when he suddenly launched 13 homers after August began last summer. He enjoyed another in the World Baseball Classic.

In total, going back to the start of August, Turang is batting .297/.384/.538, in over half a season's worth of playing time. That's giving him credit for his showing in the WBC, but it also folds in his disastrously bad 2025 playoff stats. He's hit like an elite corner outfielder for the last nine months, coming out of an offseason even hotter than he was before it. Concrete changes tell us he's genuinely maturing into that dangerous a hitter, and he's still a plus defender at an up-the-middle position. The Brewers are watching as yet another player blossoms from solidity to stardom on their watch.

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[keephopealive]

People forget that Turang was projected as the number one pick, or at least high school prospect, before his senior year. The senior year was less impressive, so he fell a bit, but still the Brewers were delighted when they were able to draft him.  A bit like Aaron Rodgers falling to the Packers late in the first round. 

[Matthew Trueblood]

52 minutes ago, keephopealive said:

People forget that Turang was projected as the number one pick, or at least high school prospect, before his senior year. The senior year was less impressive, so he fell a bit, but still the Brewers were delighted when they were able to draft him.  A bit like Aaron Rodgers falling to the Packers late in the first round. 

For that matter, there was buzz about Garrett Mitchell near the top of the first round early in the 2020 draft cycle. 

[Randall Buchek]

Is it too late to sign Turang to a long term deal?  I sure hope not.

[sveumrules]

46 minutes ago, Randall Buchek said:

Is it too late to sign Turang to a long term deal?  I sure hope not.

It's never too late if one is willing to pay top dollar.

He'd surely want something richer than the six years and $141M that Nico Hoerner just signed for.

Maybe he'd go for something like eight years and $210M, that would give him the record for AAV at 2B and would be the second largest total outlay for a keystone man after Cano got ten years and $240M back in 2013.

[wiguy94]

57 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

It's never too late if one is willing to pay top dollar.

He'd surely want something richer than the six years and $141M that Nico Hoerner just signed for.

Maybe he'd go for something like eight years and $210M, that would give him the record for AAV at 2B and would be the second largest total outlay for a keystone man after Cano got ten years and $240M back in 2013.

That feels a bit steep no? Turang you'd be buying out 3 years of Arb. Nico's entire contract was buying out FA years.

[sveumrules]

52 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

That feels a bit steep no? Turang you'd be buying out 3 years of Arb. Nico's entire contract was buying out FA years.

Yeah, 8/210 could be closer to an opening offer from Turang's camp than a meet in the middle kind of number, but the offensive uptick Brice has shown for the last 70 games or so now also puts him a notch above Nico from a remaining upside perspective.

Say he's gonna make around $35M in Arby's over the next three years then offer $25M per FA season over the five years after that and it comes out to an even 8/160.

That's a lot of money to say no to, but I wouldn't be surprised if Brice and his reps want at least $200M to forego FA at this point. 

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, sveumrules said:

Yeah, 8/210 could be closer to an opening offer from Turang's camp than a meet in the middle kind of number, but the offensive uptick Brice has shown for the last 70 games or so now also puts him a notch above Nico from a remaining upside perspective.

Say he's gonna make around $35M in Arby's over the next three years then offer $25M per FA season over the five years after that and it comes out to an even 8/160.

That's a lot of money to say no to, but I wouldn't be surprised if Brice and his reps want at least $200M to forego FA at this point. 

Yeah I was thinking $40M to buy out his final 3 years of Arb. 8, 12, 20 per year so 8/210 would leave 5/170 for buying out FA which is 34M a year which feels quite steep. Feel like it's tough to find comps because not many players sign extensions when they have already hit Arb.

Personally speaking, I think the Brewers should extend Turang. He's shown the bat is legit at this point I think. I think he's the type of guy we should trying to keep around like a Braun/Yelich.