{"id":279026,"date":"2025-11-12T21:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279026\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:52:07","slug":"former-toronto-blue-jays-slugger-still-looking-to-keep-mlb-dream-alive-at-age-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279026\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Toronto Blue Jays slugger still looking to keep MLB dream alive at age 40"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like the 29 other MLB teams, the Toronto Blue Jays are wondering what\u2019s next for them in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>With the market officially open, gargantuan figures are about to be delivered over the next few weeks to the league\u2019s top available players.<\/p>\n<p>For one former Blue Jay who also happens to be a two-time All-Star, he\u2019s hoping to just land any contract at all.<\/p>\n<p>Justin Turner, who is attending the MLB\u2019s GM meetings in Las Vegas this week, \u201cwould love to keep playing,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1988651487686483976\" rel=\"nofollow\">as per the New York Post\u2019s Jon Heyman.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 89 games with the Blue Jays, the 40-year-old hit .254 with 76 hits, six home runs, 31 RBIs, and 37 runs scored in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Turner was traded away from Toronto to the Seattle Mariners <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/toronto\/blue-jays-trade-justin-turner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">midway through the 2024 season<\/a> for minor league outfielding prospect RJ Schreck. This past year, he suited up for 80 games with the Chicago Cubs, playing as a designated hitter, first baseman, and third baseman. The Cubs had the option to pick up the second year on his contract, but opted to let him go to free agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">You might also like:<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/toronto\/leafs-playoff-odds-money-puck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Analytics site gives Toronto Maple Leafs four-in-five chance of missing playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Will the Blue Jays make a run for Turner?<\/p>\n<p>Before he was ever in the Toronto organization, he was best known for being a top slugger for their newfound rival, winning a World Series in 2020 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he spent nine seasons and played 1075 games.<\/p>\n<p>Turner\u2019s actually played for seven major league organizations, also having stops with the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Baltimore Orioles along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Given that the team\u2019s first priority seems to be to sign Bo Bichette again, Turner probably isn\u2019t too high on their list. With World Series aspirations, a player like Turner at age 40 is far from a sure thing, and likely too risky to gamble on early season. If he were to find his way back to Toronto, the most likely avenue is probably via a midseason trade after signing elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like the 29 other MLB teams, the Toronto Blue Jays are wondering what\u2019s next for them in free&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-279026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}