Trea Turner, new Dodgers second baseman, says he ‘would have loved to stay’ with the Nationals

Then came Saturday and his first news conference as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The lines came with a twist of frustration. Naturally, Turner, 28, was asked about being traded by the Nationals instead of agreeing to a contract extension before reaching free agency. Specifically, he was pressed on General Manager Mike Rizzo’s comments that Turner and his agents wanted to table discussions until the shortstop market shook out.

“I’ve been pretty honest,” Turner said from Dodger Stadium, where he was set to bat leadoff and play second base against the Los Angeles Angels. “I said I would talk about an extension whenever and waited for that to happen, and it didn’t happen. So I’ve been told a lot of things over the last two years and, for me, actions speak louder than words. That’s kind of in the past now, it’s over with, and excited to start a new chapter….

“When I was with the Nationals, I thought I’d play there 20 years,” Turner said, speaking in the past tense about a team he helped win the World Series in 2019. “The organizations I’ve been a part of, I’ve liked. I liked the people there. I would have loved to stay there. These last two weeks have been weird because I go back and forth like, ‘Oh, they’re not going to trade me’ ... and, ‘Oh, yep, they are.’ ”