Phillies’ biggest competitor for Trea Turner revealed, and it’s a shocker

The Philadelphia Phillies are openly after one of the four star shortstops on the market, but they may have some tough competition with the Padres.

The Philadelphia Phillies are pushing hard to land one of the four star shortstops on the market, reportedly meeting with each one of them and being most heavily linked to Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts. There are, unsurprisingly, many eyes on each. However, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the San Diego Padres may be the Phillies’ biggest threat in signing Turner.

The Padres are interesting contenders for landing Turner because they already have two high-paid shortstops, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ha-Seong Kim.

Tatis himself may be considered just as big of a star as some of the free agents on the market, and Kim filled in extremely well over the 2022 season when Tatis was out due to injury and suspension, so not many would think the Padres would focus on signing another shortstop. There’s no dire need.

However, they do need to improve overall to be competitive with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and what better way than signing over a player from the Dodgers?

Despite having two shortstops, the Padres could benefit from Trea Turner

If the Padres sign Turner, the roster is bound to look completely different. The most likely moves that would result seem to be Turner to shortstop, Kim to second base, and Tatis to the outfield. The outfield certainly needs improvement as Jurickson Profar opted out of his contract and is now on the free agency market, so his return doesn’t seem promising.

That leaves Juan Soto and Trent Grisham as the two regular outfield starters left, and Tatis would certainly be a good fill for the remaining spot. Signing Turner would fill the hole that would’ve been left in moving Tatis, and San Diego will increase their overall defense in the process.

They’re starting to load the roster with stars, similar to what the Dodgers have been doing over the past few years. If they land Turner and utilize him correctly, they could be a serious threat in the NL West.

However, it was almost unpredictable that the Phillies would be fighting the Padres for the star.