Brice Turang Needs to Become a Cut-the-Plate-in-Half Guy

There were at least three seasons within Brice Turang's rookie campaign. He started so cold that, despite his dazzling glove work at the keystone, the Brewers sent him down to Triple A in early June, and he didn't make it back until the very end of the month. Once he did return, though, he caught lightning in a bottle for a bit. Then, right when the rest of the offense was running on all cylinders and the team charged smoothly into the postseason, Turang fell apart again, leaving the question of whether he's a viable second baseman for the 2024 Crew open.

First, let's take a closer look at the numbers in those three distinct stretches of the season, because by doing so, we can see both the tantalizing and the terrifying narratives about him.

Although even that middle line will stop Turang far short of superstardom, that's plenty of production from a speedy, slick-fielding middle infielder. If he could sustain that over a full season, the Brewers would be delighted to play him virtually every day and bat him near the bottom of the order, where he could get on base ahead of the guys at the top of the lineup card and press the issue with his legs. The problem is that the other two versions of him we saw during his rookie campaign are essentially unplayable, even for a great defender and baserunner.

The key shortcoming in his game is obviously his power. That glorious home-opener grand slam notwithstanding, Turang never mustered the pop teams want from even defense-first lineup spots in this day and age. He's not totally without the ability to put a charge in the ball, but he never found a way to do it consistently as a rookie. Here are his slugging averages by pitch location, for each of the three stretches of the season we identified above.

That's a lot of blue, and blue is bad on these charts. There's something to work with here, though. Look at the inner third of the plate on the first two charts, and especially the lower part. Where's the danger in Turang's swing? It comes when he can get around on the ball inside, and especially when he can get down through and around a ball below his belt.

Now, here's the same set of heat maps, but with swing rate instead of slugging.

This isn't a player who understands his own swing very well. Turang swung at far too many high pitches, given what he can actually do with them, even in his best stretch. On the other hand, though, even a hitter with a clear hole in his swing has to define and defend the zone, and Turang did that expertly in the middle panel. He didn't chase outside the zone, boosting his walk rate, and he made enough contact within it to cut his strikeout rate way down.

Still, I want to see Turang make the next adjustment in 2024. He can be a better hitter than we saw him be in 2023, if he learns to cut the plate in half and give up a few strikes on the outside corner, in order to hit it better on the inner half. Lars Nootbaar (admittedly, a player with more power than Turang has showed so far) is an exemplar.

A version of Turang who focuses his swings more on the pitches he can drive (imagine the heat map above with the orange range slightly lower, in the nitro zone Turang showed last year) will get on base at a nice clip, because he makes adequate contact and will draw some walks by forcing deep counts. He might never be more than an average big-league hitter, but given the rest of his skills, that's a goal worth chasing, and one he should pursue by further tweaking his approach.

Do you want to see Turang enter 2024 as the regular second baseman? What would push you toward either liking or disliking that choice? Let's talk more about the team's turbid middle-infield situation.