Justin Turner expected to be in the majors this year. Instead, the 41-year-old two-time All-Star is playing for the Tijuana Toros after none of baseball’s 30 big league clubs offered him a guaranteed contract, a minor league deal or even a spring training invite.
Turner said he called several teams himself and asked to be signed. On Tuesday, a white Maserati parked outside Toros Mobil Park before first pitch, a signal that he had arrived for another night in a place where his name already carried weight.
“I was kind of shocked,” Turner said. “To not get a non-roster invite, that was tough and disappointing.” He said the reaction made sense only in a sport that now leans heavily on data. “I know where the game’s going, and a lot of weight is put into a data sheet,” he said. “Part of my tool set that I bring, you won’t find on a data sheet.”
That has not dulled his appetite for playing. Turner, who has earned north of $130 million in a 17-year career, said he still wants to keep going until someone finally takes the jersey off his back. “I’ve always said I’m going to play as long as I can and make someone rip a jersey off me,” he said. “I love playing, I love being around guys, love being around the cage. I still feel really good in the box.”
The move has turned Tijuana into an unlikely stop on the late-career route for former major leaguers. The Mexican Baseball League allows up to 20 foreign-born players on a 38-man roster, and the Toros have 14 players who have appeared in an MLB game. Turner is also reunited with Wilmer Flores, while Andrelton Simmons appeared for the Dorados de Chihuahua in the same series.
Turner’s arrival has been noticed well beyond the ballpark. The Tijuana club store sells jerseys with his name, and the team mascot, a bull named Torín, has a removable red beard to match Turner’s ginger look. Teammates and fans have been calling him Barba Roja, Spanish for Red Beard, and many Dodgers fans have traveled to Mexico early this year to see him.
That interest is tied to what Turner meant in Los Angeles. He spent nine seasons with the Dodgers, posted 34.6 bWAR there and became an All-Star, a fan favorite and a World Series winner. He is now just a two-hour drive from the stadium where that rise took place, a reminder of how quickly a familiar major league career can end up continuing somewhere else.
Turner said the crowds down south have made the detour easier to enjoy. “Supposedly, this is a Padres stadium, usually, but I’ve seen a ton of Dodger fans down here,” he said. “I tell you what, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than a Dodger ticket or a Padre ticket.”
