5 Blue Jays that need to step up soon to avoid being trade deadline sellers

Justin Turner

As perhaps the team’s biggest offseason splash in the free agent market, Justin Turner is turning out to be a huge disappointment. Turner was expected to help carry the club’s offense this year following the departures of offensive juggernauts Matt Chapman, Brandon Belt and Whit Merrifield at the end of the 2023 season. After all, with a career batting average of .285 while consistently putting up close to 20 home runs and 80 RBI per season, the club truly believed that Turner could help offset some of the lost offense through free agency.

However, Father Time may have finally caught up to Turner despite effectively holding it off the past few years. Since the beginning of May, Turner has hit a dismal .179 with a .531 OPS, along with just 1 home run and 7 RBI in 34 games played. In a way, it's similar to Chapman last season following his spectacular first month, except in the case for Turner this time around, his offensive output has been a lot worse.

With their key power bat addition from the past offseason struggling mightily, it has put the Jays in quite the bind, as they now needed to rely mainly on the contributions from their returning cast of players to pick up the slack. However, that hasn’t been happening either. As a result, the Jays will need Turner to somehow turn things around similar to like how Belt did last season, and become a more relevant run producer for the club before it’s too late.