Don Mattingly isn’t considering dropping Trea Turner in the Phillies’ lineup: ‘I think we count on Trea being Trea’

With the Phillies trailing by one run in the ninth inning Friday night, Trea Turner swung at the first pitch from Guardians star closer Cade Smith and popped it up.

Cue the calls to take Turner out of the leadoff spot.

“I’m definitely not there,” Don Mattingly said.

The interim manager elaborated Saturday. For one thing, he believes Turner is taking better swings, even if the results haven’t aligned. Turner was batting .234 with a .288 on-base percentage and .640 OPS through Friday.

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But Mattingly also doesn’t think dropping Turner in the batting order would help the star shortstop’s confidence or change the way opponents pitch him.

“You hear that over the years sometimes, but playing long enough, the at-bats are the same,” Mattingly said before a rain-delayed game against the Guardians. “Today’s game, all the information, they’re trying to go to your weaknesses, no matter if you’re hitting second, fifth, or seventh.

“And I think there would be arguments to say putting Trea behind [Kyle Schwarber], then Schwarbs is on base and Trea can’t run, and then we take that part of his game away. So I think we count on Trea being Trea.”

Besides, Turner won the National League batting title last season with a .304 average and finished fifth in the MVP voting. And he has a considerable track record that goes back even longer.

Still, Turner was stuck in an 8-for-41 rut entering play Saturday and batting .205 (16-for-78) in May.

“Honestly, he looks like he’s getting better,” Mattingly said. “You see better swings. You see more consistent swings. You feel like it’s coming because it’s always been there. It’s not like all of a sudden he’s forgotten how to hit.

“For me, Trea’s headed in the right direction, so there’s no reason to panic at this point and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to put somebody else in that spot and move it around.”

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But it’s also Memorial Day weekend, typically a time on the schedule when front offices take stock of their rosters and plan for potential moves before the trade deadline, set this year for Aug. 3.

And Turner’s numbers are worse than even in 2023, his rough first season with the Phillies, when he was batting .243 with a .671 OPS at this point.

“If we’re going to get to where we want to get to, these guys have got to go — and Trea has to be a big part of that,” Mattingly said. “And that’s not putting undue pressure, like this is all on Trea. But Trea’s going to have to be Trea.”

Including eight innings Friday night, Cristopher Sánchez has the second-longest scoreless streak in Phillies history at 37⅔ innings. He will take aim at Grover Alexander’s 41-inning mark Wednesday in San Diego.

“He was so raw when we first got him, and even in his first couple of stints here in the big leagues,” said Guardians first baseman Rhys Hoskins, Sánchez‘s former Phillies teammate. “But it’s cool to see how he’s trusted the people around him in order to get the product that you’re seeing.”

» READ MORE: Phillies waste a strong outing from Cristopher Sánchez in loss to Guardians

Indeed, when the Phillies called up Sánchez to pitch in Oakland on June 17, 2023, they were desperate for a No. 5 starter. Since then, he’s second in the majors in innings (551) and third in ERA (2.77).

Mattingly did drop Adolis García down to the No. 8 spot in the order amid a 1-for-35, 19-strikeout malaise.

“I don’t feel like we really have a true alternative,” Mattingly said of taking García out of the lineup entirely. “If I said, ‘OK, this guy’s going to be an upgrade offensively where we’re going to get something out of that,’ I’d probably be more willing to try to score some runs and defend late [with García].

“But I think it’s still in there.”

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García, a strong-armed right fielder, has been solid as a defender. But the Phillies thought they’d get more at the plate even after two down years with the Rangers. Through Friday, he was batting .203 with four homers and ranked 155th among 171 qualified hitters with a .596 OPS.

By comparison, Max Kepler batted .229 with five homers and a .706 at this point last season.

Chan-min Park, a 17-year-old right-hander from South Korea, finalized a deal with the Phillies. He will receive a $1.205 million signing bonus.

The deal with Park was made possible partially because the Phillies acquired international bonus money in a pair of trades. They sent triple-A righty Griff McGarry to the Dodgers last month and double-A righty Andrew Baker to the Rockies on Friday.

Park is listed at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds and reportedly throws four pitches: fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup/splitter.

Veteran righty Taijuan Walker, released by the Phillies on April 23, signed a minor league contract with the Angels. If he pitches in the majors, the Angels will owe him a prorated portion of the minimum salary, with the Phillies responsible for the rest of his $18 million salary. ... Andrew Painter (1-4, 5.77 ERA) is scheduled to start the series finale at 1:35 p.m. Sunday against Guardians lefty Parker Messick (5-1, 2.45).