Over a dozen Phillies are in the World Baseball Classic. Why not Trea Turner?

Quite a few Phillies players and prospects will be taking a break from spring training for the World Baseball Classic in March. With three representatives, Team USA has the biggest Phillies cohort.

Surely Trea Turner, whose five-homer, 9-for-23, 1.483 OPS WBC earned him the “Captain America” moniker in 2023, is one of them, right?

Right?

“Something I wanted to do,” Turner told reporters, including Phillies Nation‘s Destiny Lugardo, on Monday in Clearwater. “Phone never rang.”

In a vacuum, his is a perplexing omission by manager Mark DeRosa and any involved Team USA brass. Not only was Turner far and away the United States’ best player in the last Classic (with J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber, interestingly, second and third on the team in OPS), but he’s coming off a stellar year with the Phillies. He played surprisingly superb defense, won the batting title, finished fifth in NL MVP voting and posted the second-best fWAR of his career at 6.7.

These decisions are not made in a vacuum, and the roster around Turner is not too shabby. Team USA’s infield consists of Alex Bregman, Ernie Clement, Paul Goldschmidt, Bryce Harper, Gunnar Henderson, Brice Turang and Bobby Witt Jr. In all likelihood, Witt will get the bulk of starts at shortstop for Team USA (and he’s deserving of that nod), with Henderson behind him.

You could make a case for Turner over Henderson, given their respective WBC experience (Henderson will be making his event debut) and the very slight advantage that Turner had in terms of 2025 production over Henderson (4.8 fWAR, .787 OPS).

Of course, these decisions also aren’t reached based on 1.9 FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement, 25 points of OPS and a six-game sample. Henderson is a star, and the injection of 24-year-old stardom will serve the United States well, whether it comes at the expense of Turner or not. Plus, he hits lefty, complementing Witt. Clement is probably next in line at short, but he’s listed as a “utility player,” which is valuable in its own rite.

Maybe a rejection phone call would’ve been courteous, if only given the track record. Turner doesn’t sound like he’s holding a grudge.

“Happens,” he said. “But I wish those guys the best. It’s so much fun. I gladly would’ve done it again. I said it last time, if they ever ask, I would say yes. They’ve got a great roster this year. Stacked. So I think we’re in a good spot to win. I’ll definitely be watching it.”