Dodgers: MLB insider reveals why Justin Turner was never leaving

There was no way Justin Turner was leaving the Dodgers. None. Zero. Not gonna happen.

With all due respect to the Milwaukee Brewers, something told us all offseason long that Justin Turner would be a Dodger ’til the end of his career, all things being close to equal.

Or being not that close to equal. On the oft chance that Milwaukee had, say, doubled up LA’s offer, it still felt like Turner would’ve stayed home.

Shocking absolutely no one, Turner’s return was so curated that he announced the move himself, removing any boundary between his own name and the news.

Like any great athlete’s “coming home” announcement, it felt inevitable despite the mounting tension around his free agency in the weeks prior.

On Thursday, Ken Rosenthal dropped an explainer for The Athletic featuring interviews with many core members of Turner’s circle, and it laid bare everything we already knew. Namely, there was never any reason to hyperventilate about the Dodgers circling, say, DJ LeMahieu or Eugenio Suarez.

It’s a fascinating read that encapsulates so much of who Turner is as a person and teammate, as well as the unusual circumstances that led him from the Mets to the Dodgers in the first place, changing his baseball life.

When will Justin Turner retire with the Dodgers?

Former Dodger AJ Ellis’ quotes, which lead off the article, truly got to us, in terms of estimating Turner’s longevity. Ellis mused, as the offseason began and World Series celebration controversy ignited, that you wouldn’t see Turner in another uniform until he slunk off into broadcasting, continuing on the Dodgers’ “team” in an entirely new fashion.

We can’t rule that out whatsoever, in two, three, or four years.

If anything, the uproar over his COVID-positive return to the postgame scrum only further cemented the fact that he wasn’t leaving. The optics were poor and admittedly it was a short-sighted and reactionary move, but his teammates needed him on the field and he needed to be here. The unbridled love came at a price, but it was also extremely telling about Turner’s next five years…and several decades.

It’s corny to comprehend, but Turner simply is a Dodger. Overtures from the Mets, a team that disrespected him in the first place, felt like a tempting chance to finish his career out on a winner and prove those executives from the beginning of the decade wrong.

But would empty vengeance really feel better than stability in Los Angeles? No way.

Turner stayed home, as we all knew he would deep down.

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