The Phillies have reached the point where Trea Turner’s spot in the order is a real question, not a hypothetical. He is still one of the first three hitters out of the gate, even while sitting 152nd out of 156 qualified hitters with a 65 wRC+.
That is why the name keeps coming up now. Turner’s production has dragged long enough that the idea of moving him down no longer sounds like a punishment, but like a way to get him out of the brightest part of the spotlight and maybe give the lineup a better shape.
Don Mattingly once handled a struggling hitter that way with Alec Bohm, and the result is the reason that example keeps hanging over this discussion. Mattingly gave Bohm two days off, then moved him down in the batting order so he could, in his words, “catch his breath.” After that, Bohm hit.281/.326/.504 in 129 plate appearances.
That history matters because it shows what a temporary reset can look like when a hitter is pressing. Bohm’s case is not Turner’s case, but it does give the Phillies a recent model for how to ease pressure without cutting a player out of the lineup altogether. It also points to the practical question that follows any shuffle: if Turner is not hitting second or near the top, who is?
The best answer may be Bohm, largely because the Phillies do not have many right-handed alternatives for that spot. That is the kind of lineup problem that turns a single slump into a broader construction issue. If Turner is moved down, the top of the order does not just change in theory; it changes the way the club spreads out its best plate appearances and who is asked to bridge the front and middle of the lineup.
There is still one unresolved piece that keeps the debate from settling cleanly. If Turner is removed from one of the first three spots, the next move could be Bohm in the two hole, but the article also raises the possibility of J.T. Realmuto there. That is the real decision hiding inside the slump: not whether Turner has struggled, but whether the Phillies are ready to use the order itself as the first response.
