Justin Turner is a utility baseball player who joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014. The Major League baseball player plays mainly as a third baseman for his team but has played in various positions for his former teams. He has experience with first base, second base, and shortstop.
Justin Turner early days and career
Justin Turner is a Californian boy; he was born in Long Beach on November 23, 1984. He grew up in that state, where he attended Mayfair High School in Lakewood. Apparently, his love of baseball began before he knew he was going to go pro. Throughout his stay in Lakewood, he played for his high school baseball team. His efforts resulted in him being honored three times as the second baseman and as a shortstop on the first team of All-Suburban.
In his senior year, he went one better and scored a 0.514 in the league. The Mayfair High baseball team made it to the league title this year. That same season, Justin also received the Most Valuable Player award for his outstanding contribution to the team’s winning season.
After graduating from high school, Justin studied kinesiology as a major at California State University in Fullerton. Turner lost no time and made the second baseball position his own shortly after joining the college baseball team, the Titans, as a rookie. The American sports magazine Baseball America awarded him the All-American Honors for his performance in the freshman year 2003. He also joined the College World Series All-Tournament team in 2003, this time as a shortstop.
To this day, College World Series fans remember him as the man who was hit in the face by a fastball after he ran 3-3, one of which was a home run. In the College World Series edition of the following year, Turner and the Titans beat Texas in a final showdown in two games for the title.
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In 2005, in the Major League Baseball Draft, Turner was signed by the New York Yankees in the 29th round. Unfortunately, this was not the case as he had not signed with them. The following year he was drafted again, this time in the 7th round by the Cincinnati Reds. The team also threw in a $50,000 bonus for Turner, which depended on him putting pen to paper for the team.
Turner showed spades for his talent, but unfortunately, he only played for the team’s rookie league partner, the Billings Mustangs. During his time here he played in all four infield positions and also in the outfield. This season, however, he made a name for himself by achieving a team-leading batting average of 0.338 and an OPS of 0.921. He ended the 2008 season at Chattanooga Lookouts in the lower league, where he achieved a batting average of 0.289 and an OPS of 0.792.
Justin Turner, Ryan Freel, and Brandon Waring were traded by the Reds for the Baltimore Orioles in December 2008. It was here that Turner finally made his debut in Major League Baseball. For the 2009 season, he made the Norfolk Tides triple-A rating, finishing with an average of 0.300 and an OPS of 0.749.
On September 8, 2009, Baltimore Orioles bought his contract and played against him the very next day. Just three days after his debut, he scored his first major league success at the legendary Yankee Stadium. He ended the season after playing in 12 games and setting a 3-18 record. The following season he played 17 games for the team and achieved an average of 0.111 (3 goals in 27 At Bats).
In May 2010, the New York Mets brought in gymnasts from the Baltimore Orioles and elected him to the Buffalo Bisons’ Triple-A-Minor League. A month later he was recalled by the Mets. A year later, on May 15, 2011, he scored his first major league baseball home run against the Houston Astros. That day, he hit a three-run home run and collected a 5-RBI. The following week, he collected another RBI in a Subway Series game, his seventh consecutive game for the Mets. At the end of the month, he became the first New York Mets player to win the NL Rookie Player of the Month.
The following year, he was officially named the All-Around Supply Infielder but played in shortstop for some time that season. At the end of the 2013 season, Justin was dismissed from the Mets, which made him a free player.
It was during this time that he was discovered by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ bank trainer while attending an alumni game at California State University. In February 2014, he drew up a minor-league contract with the Dodgers. On 16 March he was added to the Major League list.
The player’s versatility finally worked in his favor when he played 109 games for the L.A. Dodgers in the 2014 season. Thanks to his seven home runs with 43 RBI on 288 At Bats, he achieved a team-leading average of 0.340 points. In January 2015 he was rewarded by the Dodgers with a one-year contract worth $2.5 million, whereupon he became the undisputed starter for the third base position. He finished the 2015 season with an average of 0.294. He also scored 16 home runs and 60 RBI, a record for his career.
In 2015 Turner had to undergo surgery on his left knee, after which he signed another one-year contract worth $5.1 million. In the 2016 season, Justin played 151 games, hit 27 home runs, 90 RBI, and a batting average of 0.275.
Finally, in December 2016, Turner received its first multi-year contract – a four-year contract worth $64 million. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury at the beginning of the season after a flying start – a pulled hamstring. The injury put him out of action from mid-May to early June. A month later he was appointed to the 2017 Major League Baseball All-Star Game Team. He finished the 2017 season with an average of 0.322, 0.415 OPS, 71 RBI, and 21 home runs. Turner was also named MVP for the 2017 National League Championship Series along with Chris Taylor. In the 2017 World Series, however, he could not live up to his talent.
On March 19, 2018, Turner suffered another injury after he was hit by a pitch on his left wrist during a practice game. Fortunately, the injury did not require surgery, but this meant that he was marginalized at the beginning of the season.
Family and Relationships. Does he have a wife or girlfriend?
The quick answer is both; Turner had a girlfriend and now he has a wife. The long answer is that his girlfriend and his wives are one and the same person. Turner’s girlfriend at the time, Kourtney Pogue, had stood by him for a reasonable part of his career. Finally, Justin decided to ask the question and make it official. Sometime in December 2017, the knot was tied.
Not much is known about Justin Turner’s family. All that is known is the name of his parents: John Turner and Betsy Turner. He also has a sibling, a younger sister.
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Weight, Height, and Body Measurements of Justin Turner
The third baseman is doing quite well to keep his weight low and his physique athletic. He stands at an impressive height of 1.8 meters, which is 5 feet and 9 inches. He maintains a healthy weight of 93 kg, which is 205 lbs.