said Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jos\u00e9 Urquidy<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut for this league, and particularly the Toros, having recognizable names makes their teams better and a bigger draw. It\u2019s good for business, and team president Omar Canizales Soto said the club even reached out to Luis Arraez late this offseason before the three-time batting champion inked a one-year deal with the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n
Canizales said he\u2019s never seen an American player have the same impact in the LMB as Turner \u2014 who has a 1.031 OPS for the first-place Toros \u2014 has had in his first month in Tijuana. The team contacted him for a videoconference late in spring, when they sensed he might not have any big league offers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith him coming here, the fact that everyone\u2019s taking a look at Tijuana,\u201d Canizales said through interpreter Tony Alvarez. \u201cIt will help the organization and, of course, also the league itself, to pay more attention to it. \u2026 We believe that by having players that play here, that will create a domino effect, and maybe they could tell other players.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd of course, the jersey sales started to pick up. Especially the ones with the No. 10 on the back.\u201d<\/p>\n
His teammate, Flores, was so shocked to hear about Turner\u2019s signing that he thought it was a lie. Turner has private security that helps him and his family navigate their daily travels to and from San Diego, where many American-born Toros players live during the season.<\/p>\n
Toros manager Roberto Kelly, a two-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion coach in his own right, sees the Mexican League as the beneficiary of the changing dynamics at the MLB level. \u201cOnce you get to a certain age,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019re pretty much out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, Turner \u2014 who is five years older than any of his teammates \u2014 and a slew of others are playing out the string on his watch, hoping some team in the United States sees them and maybe changes their mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you see Justin, the way he walks around this clubhouse, you wouldn\u2019t even think he has done all of what he\u2019s done in the big leagues,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cBecause he\u2019s just one of us. And that\u2019s what\u2019s great about him, and having that kind of attitude, I think it\u2019s a big plus for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/justin-turner-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Turner\u2019s name recognition and on-field production have both been boons for the Toros. (Courtesy of Tijuana Toros)<\/p>\n
Nearly every day this offseason, Turner contemplated his baseball mortality. \u201cIt was a roller coaster,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was up and down every day.\u201d He reached out to ex-Dodgers teammate Hyun-Jin Ryu about opportunities in Korea, but nothing materialized. He had a meeting on the books with his agency to discuss his future. Maybe that meant playing golf. Maybe that meant coaching.<\/p>\n
When the Toros reached out, he canceled it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s hard to walk away from the game on your own terms,\u201d said former Dodgers teammate A.J. Ellis, who spoke with Turner during last year\u2019s playoffs. \u201cI think he\u2019s giving himself the opportunity to determine when it\u2019s time for that point. \u2026 Justin\u2019s pouring out every ounce he has in the game of baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner thought he would retire as a Dodger, he said. But his career since leaving Los Angeles took him to Boston, Toronto, Seattle and Chicago. He would have been the game\u2019s oldest position player, and felt confident he\u2019d get that chance.<\/p>\n
Perhaps there would have been interest in him as a coach, maybe even as a manager. That\u2019s on the table, he said, but not something he\u2019s truly ready to consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think I\u2019ll remain in the game for a long time,\u201d Turner said at the prospect of managing. \u201cThe question is, is the time right? And how much time is that going to pull me away from my son? It depends on the role and the situation. I think time will tell what happens. I\u2019m not mapping anything out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been exactly 20 years since Turner first put on a professional uniform. Twenty years since he hit his first career home run for the Billings Mustangs, a team and league that are no longer in affiliated baseball.<\/p>\n
In the decades since, Turner said, he\u2019s \u201cbeen through just about everything you can go through in baseball.\u201d Traded, non-tendered, DFA\u2019d. Sent up, called down. He\u2019s been the last man on a roster, a September call-up. A starter, the recipient of a hefty contract. An All-Star. A champion.<\/p>\n
As the sun set off the mountains on Tuesday night, in front of a small but quite noisy crowd, Turner was writing yet one more chapter. On an 0-2 count, he ripped a fastball up near his eyes for a two-run home run.<\/p>\n
It was vintage Turner, but with a new backdrop. The mascot dancing on the field, matracas crackling from the crowd and a PA announcer shouting his name as he rounded the bases. None of it was familiar, except for the swing.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the big leagues, and it isn\u2019t where he wants to be. But it is the game he loves, and for now, that is enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else am I gonna do? Golf? Sit in a booth and talk about other players? I\u2019d much rather be swinging the bat than talk about people swinging the bat,\u201d Turner said. \u201cYou only have one opportunity and one window to play this game. Once you say you\u2019re done, very, very, very few people come back and pick it up again. So I\u2019m gonna go as long as I can and as long as I enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TIJUANA, Mexico \u2014 A white Maserati was parked outside the main entrance of Toros Mobil Park, six hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2323,363,1189,99],"class_list":["post-645854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}