My new favorite Mariner is grizzled, but he might be the secret to a postseason run

Several years ago, the Mariners had a reliever named Danny Farquhar and for whatever reason, I liked him a lot, so much that when I interviewed him as a host at 710 ESPN Seattle, I asked him if we could meet for a drink sometime.

I know that sounds weird, undoubtedly because it is weird, not to mention highly unprofessional. But what the heck, I asked him anyway, and we never did get together, but it didn’t stop me from looking forward to watching the fast-working Farquhar on the mound.

Farquhar’s back with the Mariners now as an assistant pitching coach, but I’m not “stalking” him anymore. Last week I moved on to another favorite player when Justin Turner arrived in Seattle.

If you rated the Mariners’ acquisitions at the trade deadline, it would probably go something like this:

1) Randy Arozarena

2) Yimi Garcia

3) Justin Turner

4) J.T. Chargois

But I’m putting Turner at the top of my list, way on top, even outdistancing Arozarena, who is in his prime and figures to offer much more pop than a 39-year-old who is at the tail end of his career.

If you’re like me, Turner caught your attention when he played for the Dodgers from 2014-22. How could you miss him with that flowing red hair and bushy red beard? If he didn’t stand out appearance-wise, he did with his bat, seemingly always producing when it mattered most.

I spent the better part of a Monday morning gathering as much information on Turner as I could. I mean, I want to know everything about the guy who I’m convinced will be the biggest missing piece between the Mariners not making the playoffs and making it to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

In one short week we’ve already noticed the difference. Before he even played his first game with his new team in Boston, he talked to reporters from the Fenway Park visitors’ dugout and looked and sounded like the happiest guy in the world.

You’d think that he’d be a bit unsettled with yet another move in a career that has seen him in six organizations since he was drafted in the seventh round by the Reds in 2006 and with a wife who’d just given birth to their son three weeks ago.

Turner came across as flat-out likable, the kind of guy I hoped he’d be when I saw all that red hair flopping everywhere in a Dodgers’ uniform year after year in the postseason.

Then we immediately saw his impact in his first at-bat, poking an outside pitch to right field for an RBI single to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead over the Red Sox. In too many at-bats this year, we’ve seen the Mariners strike out in that situation, yet Turner delivered.

“I’ve learned that you don’t try to do too much,” Tuner said of his two-strike approach. “You have small goals and sometimes big things will happen.”

In his first home game against the Phillies Friday night, he hit a grand slam, the fourth of his career, highlighting a 10-2 victory.

Turner is a marked upgrade over Ty France and Tyler Locklear at first base, and you get the added bonus of his role as a mentor too.

“I love talking hitting, offering a little bit of insight into what some of my keys are,” he said. “I certainly have a lot of different things guys can maybe try that will unlock some stuff.”

Mitch Haniger, who went 4-for-10 and hit two home runs in the three-game series with the Phillies acknowledged as much, saying: “He’s a big help for me as a guy whose swing I’ve studied for awhile. So I’ve been leaning on and asking a lot of questions, and it’s really good.”

Turner admits that he’s been through it all, traded and released, enduring every up and down imaginable. The lowest point? Being released by the Mets after the 2013 season but rallying in a surprising way. Dodgers bench coach Tim Wallach saw him playing in a Cal-State Fullerton alumni game and was impressed enough that the Dodgers signed him to a minor-league deal in 2014.

That led to us seeing him for the better part of a decade as a highly productive Dodgers’ shortstop.

Maybe he’s not that guy anymore, but just last year he hit .276 with 23 home runs and 96 runs batted in for the Red Sox. And since July 1st as a Blue Jay, he was batting over .300 before joining the Mariners.

Turner also brings fun facts galore to Seattle. He has two little dogs with big ears named Moonshine and Rigby. His wife, Kourtney, has a podcast called “Holding Kourt” and sang “O Canada” before a Blue Jays’ game in May. Turner and his wife started the Justin Turner Foundation, which benefits homeless veterans, kids battling life-altering illnesses and various youth baseball organizations. On top of everything else, I’m guessing Turner’s got more than a high baseball IQ as a student who majored in kinesiology at Cal-State Fullerton.

I’m all in on him, the tangibles and intangibles, the veteran presence in the clubhouse, not to mention the joy he has for the game. I’m thinking Mariner fans might look back on the 2024 season and credit Justin Turner as one of the key reasons why the World Series drought in Seattle ended.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. He appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. on Jason Puckett’s podcast at PuckSports.com. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) @cougsgo.