No. 7: Trea Turner
Trea Turner, the most recent big free agent signing by the Phillies before Aaron Nola, took place last year. Turner was inked to a massive 11-year, $300 million deal, including a full no-trade clause as part of the contract. He has already proven to be a winner in the past as he helped guide the Washington Nationals to their first-ever World Series championship in 2019.
With his elite combination of speed and power, the Phillies looked to Turner to be a difference maker for the ballclub in the top part of their batting order for the next decade.
However, Turner endured one of the worst slumps of his career as he failed to get much going during almost the entire first half of the 2023 MLB season. It even got to the point where the hometown fans showered him with boos based on his mediocre performance to that point. Fortunately, Turner managed to turn things around in a big way in the second half. In particular, he became the key contributor for the ballclub down the stretch, scoring 44 runs, along with tallying 16 home runs, 42 RBI, and nine stolen bases over the final two months of the season.
He continued to carry that momentum right into the playoffs, leading the charge for the Phillies through the Wild Card and Divisional Series, until finally coming up just short in the NLCS. The Phillies’ faithful got to witness the two sides of Turner in 2023, the disastrous version during the first half of the season, and the All-Star version in the latter half.
For now, it's difficult to determine which version of Turner will show up in 2024, but given his previous successful track record in his nine-year MLB career, one would predict that more than likely the dominant version of Turner will be back next season.
But because this hint of uncertainty remains and given the size of his gigantic contract, he deserves the lowest ranking among the seven on this list, for now, as we can only wait and see how he turns out in the coming years.