Blue Jays trade Turner to Mariners for prospect
The Seattle Mariners acquired designated hitter Justin Turner and cash from the Toronto Blue Jays for outfield prospect RJ Schreck, the clubs announced Monday.
The Mariners are absorbing the rest of Turner's 2024 salary, which will work out to roughly $4.3 million, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com.
Turner signed a one-year contract in the offseason and has gone deep six times with 31 RBIs and a .724 OPS over 90 games with Toronto.
"Coming over here, we all had different intentions on where the season was going to go. ... As a guy on an expiring contract, you expected this could happen," Turner said Monday, according to Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. "... This is (the) first time in (my) career I've been traded in middle of (a) season."
He added: "I feel like I let an entire country down."
The 39-year-old brings plenty of playoff experience to a Mariners team looking to win its first AL West title since 2001. The two-time All-Star owns a .279/.370/.460 slash line with 13 homers and 42 RBIs over 315 at-bats in the postseason during his 16-year career. He won a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
Mariners manager Scott Servais acknowledged that Turner could be used more at first base than he was in Toronto, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. He started 12 games at first for the Blue Jays, including the contest during which he got traded.
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Schreck isn't ranked in the Mariners' top 30 prospects, according to Baseball America. He's recorded 12 homers with 45 RBIs and an .836 OPS across a combined 86 games between Single-A and Double-A in 2024.