Brice Turang is Back in Bad Habits. Does the Trade Market Hold the Solution?

At the end of play on May 15, Brice Turang looked like an All-Star in the making. He was playing his usual stellar defense and racking up stolen bases by the handful, but most importantly, he was batting ..300/.361/.414 in 139 plate appearances. Turang, 24, seemed to have figured out how to use his short swing and simple approach to put the ball in play at an elite rate, and the rest was taking care of itself. 

Since the middle of May, though, he's collapsed back into an only slightly improved version of the hitter he was in the second half of 2023. 

With power unavoidably minimal in his profile, Turang's success depends unusually heavily on consistently putting the ball in play and on taking his walks. When he does the former at an elite level, good things tend to follow. When he's closer to average in that respect, it's a safe bet that he'll be below-average overall. The good version of Turang is not merely good, but nearly elite in waiting for his approach, and that lets him cover the zone and make contact at an exceptional rate. When he's expanding even at a modest level, as he has for the last two months and change, everything snowballs on him.

Obviously, the ideal resolution to this creeping problem is Turang turning things around. The Brewers can't head down the stretch of this season with an empty .315 OBP coming from their leadoff spot, but maybe showing him numbers like these and helping him rededicate himself to the project of plate discipline will facilitate a return to the exciting level of production he gave them in the early going. Specifically, he needs to lay off the ball low and away, and maybe having him think about cutting the plate in half would permit that to happen again.

Just in case that exhortation doesn't work, though, what else could the team do? Is there a solution out there on the trade market?

One fascinating would-be trade candidate is the Rockies' Ryan McMahon, who has played both second and third base in his career and would bring power and plate discipline (though also a high strikeout rate) to the lineup and who is under team control for three more seasons on an extension he signed in 2022. Reportedly, though, the Rockies have flatly told would-be suitors that McMahon isn't going anywhere, so let's set that possibility aside.

With Christian Yelich hurt, the team needs an infusion of offensive talent, ideally toward the top of the order. Maybe understanding how Turang has struggled over a prolonged period is just a chance to think about a new set of options for landing such a player. The Reds' Jonathan India is hitting .274/.371/.415 on the season, and could slot in at second base or as the DH on any given day. That's a tricky one, though, because he has two remaining years of team control after this one, so intradivision trade stigmas might come into play.

Angels infielder Luis Rengifo is a better fit. Comfortable at either second or third, he's batting .308/.350/.433, and while that batting average probably isn't sustainable, this is his third straight season as an above-average overall hitter. He's under team control for 2025, too, so he would fit gorgeously into an infield picture that becomes more fluid for the Crew after WIlly Adames hits free agency this fall.

It's just as likely, though, that the team will try to solve this problem internally. Turang might gradually see a bit less playing time, with Andruw Monasterio starting more often (especially against lefties, of course). Tyler Black has only played four games at third base in Nashville this year, so he's not going to play there in the big leagues down the stretch, but perhaps it's not too late to revive the experiment of bringing Sal Frelick in from the outfield to man the hot corner. In either of those scenarios, Joey Ortiz could slide over and take over at second base.

Oliver Dunn can't return from the 60-day injured list until at least the middle of next month. Even once he does, though, it's hard to envision the team leaning especially hard on him. Rengifo is an excellent trade target, but should such a move fail to materialize, the most likely path forward is to keep working with Turang and hope he rediscovers the sound sense of the zone that made him so good over the season's first seven weeks. He's part of the heartbeat of the team, and while that heartbeat has been a bit uneven lately, it would be hard on everyone to replace Turang in any meaningful way. The team just needs him to find his way back to his best self.