Latest Brice Turang disrespect goes too far for many Brewers fans

For all of the uncertainty with the Milwaukee Brewers right now, one player that they don't have to worry much about is Brice Turang. After an admittedly tough rookie season especially at the plate, Turang was a revelation in 2024 as he put up a reasonable .254/.316/.349 line in 619 plate appearances while being one of the best defensive players in MLB period last year.

Is Turang an offensively limited player? That is probably fair to say at this point. His numbers were better in the high minors, but he doesn't really ever hit for a ton of power and that does lower his bat's ceiling a bit. However, that doesn't really matter all that much as between his value on the base paths and his defense, Turang's overall value put him among the best second basemen in baseball.

At least, that SHOULD put him among the best second basemen in MLB. Recently, MLB Network put out their annual rankings of the best players at each position and despite having a very good case as a top 5-7 second basemen in baseball, Turang was left off the list altogether.

MLB Network's decision to leave Brice Turang off their second base rankings makes very little sense

Just for reference here, Turang ranked 9th in Fangraphs WAR and third in Baseball-Reference WAR amongst all 2B in baseball last season. If we are looking purely at merit and production from last season, leaving Turang off MLB Network's ratings just makes absolutely no sense especially when one considers the high floor that his unique skillset gives him.

To give MLB Network a bit of the benefit of the doubt, the bulk of these rankings comes from an output from their projection system that they call The Shredder (for some reason) and it seems likely that Turang's struggles in 2023 might have brought his projections for next season down a bit. Yes, these rankings are supposed to be tweaked after the fact by their analysts, but they are starting with a flawed list from the start that clearly cares a lot more about offense/power than it probably should.

It is also worth noting that these rankings don't actually matter all that much. It is a running joke that these same 2B rankings continually leave Ozzie Albies off despite him being another clear choice to get ranked every season. Even though MLB Network may not think very highly of Turang, the Brewers know what they actually have in him and he is going to play a big role in the franchise's plans going forward.

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