Washington Nationals – Trea Turner steals 75 bases
The Nationals are one of the most complete teams in baseball and they have a rising star manning the shortstop position in Trea Turner. They have enviable depth in the pitching rotation that is led by Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. The offense is led by one of the most gifted players in the world in outfielder Bryce Harper. In close games, they have a plethora of arms in the bullpen and a fire baller lefty closer in Sean Doolittle. There’s not much else this team needs to get over the hump and finally have success in October. One key element is going to be Turner on the base paths. He’s going to play around 150 games and swipe 75 bags, which would be the highest total in baseball since Kenny Lofton stole 75 in 1996 for the Cleveland Indians.
Since we have yet to see a full season from Turner, we don’t truly know what his ceiling could be in the stolen base department. He’s played 73 and 98 games these past two season and he’s been borderline unstoppable when he gets on base. Turner has 81 career steals and has only been caught 16 times, which is just 16 per cent of the time. At that rate, Turner would have to attempt to steal a base about 90 times this season. That’s a very attainable number over the course of 150 games. He has a career OBP of .348 and it’s not unreasonable to think that could climb even higher with his skillset.
The last thing National League teams will want to see is another facet of the offense come together for the loaded Nationals. Washington is going to be highly difficult to deal with on a nightly basis if the 1-2 punch of Turner and Harper are in sync, let alone the rest of the offense.