Brewers’ Brice Turang Looks To Add Offense To His Outstanding Defense

Brice Turang has proven he can play elite defense at the major-league level.

The Milwaukee Brewers second baseman won the National League Platinum Glove in 2024 – which is awarded to the league’s top fielder – in his first full MLB season.

Turang was also the NL Gold Glove second baseman. He had 22 defensive runs saved and committed just seven errors in 626 total chances.

“It was really cool,” Turang said of winning the Platinum Glove. “It’s hard to explain. I always just tell people like you strive to be the best defender that you can be for your team and then there are awards for it, which is really cool.

“You devote your whole life to this game, and you work really hard at these things, so to get somewhat of a reward is nice.”

Turang Picking It Up Offensively

The next step for the 25-year-old Turang is becoming a bigger factor offensively.

Turang was off to a good start with the bat this season until going 2 for 25 in his last six games. Still, he is hitting better than his first two seasons in the big leagues.

In 52 games this year, Turang is batting .269/.339/.355 with four home runs and 13 stolen bases. Though he stole 50 bases in 155 games last year, his slash line was just .254/.316/.349.

Even though Turang had a rough week at the plate, he made one of his two hits count. His RBI double in the eighth inning on Sunday broke a tie and lifted the Brewers to a 6-5 victory over the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

“I’m not even really scuffling,” Turang said. “I’m hitting balls hard, just right to people. You feel like every ball you hit hard is right to someone and every ball you don’t hit hard is right to someone.

“You just have to keep moving forward, because the more you try, you can go down a big rabbit hole. I feel good. I feel really comfortable at the plate.”

Postseason Boosted Turang’s Confidence

Turang came into the season confident that he would improve offensively.

The Brewers’ 2024 season ended in heartbreak as they lost to the New York Mets in three games in a NL Wild Card Series. Turang shined, though, going 5 for 11 with three doubles.

“I’m just learning, understanding the game, understanding my swing, what adjustments you have to make and stuff like that,” said Turang, the Brewers’ first-round draft pick with the 21^st overall selection in 2018 from Santiago High School in Corona, Calif. “I think it’s just having time in the league and being able to make the adjustments and learning,”

Brewers Lacking Small-Market Magic in ‘25

Turang would love to get back to the postseason. The Brewers are two-time defending NL Central champions and have made the playoffs six of the seven seasons.

However, the Brewers have been unable to perform their small-market so far this year as they are 27-28 and tied for third place in the division, 6 ½ games behind the first-place Cubs.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy has said he believes his team has lost it “edge.” Yet Turang is confident that the Brewers are ready to get on a hot streak.

“We’ve got a good team,” Brice Turang said. “It’s just putting all the pieces together and that’ll happen, it’ll turn. It seems like every year, though, people count us out and say, ‘Well, they can’t keep going to the playoffs every year because they’re a small-market team.’ But we’ll be fine. We’re going to play a lot better.”