{"id":660773,"date":"2026-04-03T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660773\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:16:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:16:44","slug":"brice-turang-is-off-to-an-mvp-level-start-can-he-keep-it-up-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660773\/","title":{"rendered":"Brice Turang is Off to an MVP-Level Start. Can He Keep it Up? – Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning on Wednesday, when Yandy Diaz<\/a> hit a 2-run home run to right field off Jacob Misiorowski<\/a>. An answer wasn\u2019t long in coming, though, as Brice Turang<\/a> launched his first homer of the year after David Hamilton<\/a> reached on an error. Turang finished the day 1-2 with 2 RBIs and a walk, bringing his overall line this year to .409\/.500\/.727 through six games. Additionally, as of Thursday, he leads the league in bWAR and doubles.\u00a0It’s an amazing start to the season, but how much of it is sustainable?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst, let’s honor just how much Turang has improved over his career in Milwaukee thus far. He made his debut in 2023, slashing .218\/.285\/.300 over 448 plate appearances, well below league average. He improved the following year, slashing .254\/.316\/.349 in 615 plate appearances, still below-average, but within shouting distance. Last year was his breakout. Turang hit 18 home runs, more than his previous two seasons combined, while slashing .288\/.359\/.435, achieving an above-average OPS+ (122) for the first time in his career and finishing 14th\u00a0in MVP voting, just two spots behind teammate Christian Yelich<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTurang has been one of the amazing developmental stories in baseball lately, and was one of the best overall players in MLB last year, but what is his ceiling? Is there still room for improvement with his offensive output, or will he sit at a similar level to what he produced in 2025?\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2026 season has just started, and the sample sizes are small, but there are a few key areas to keep an eye on. First, Turang\u2019s bat speed isn\u2019t great, but it’s already improved a lot. He tapped into more bat speed as last season went along, and is back at his 2025 level (a couple ticks faster than in 2023 or 2024) to begin 2026. Because he’s always had a plus feel for hitting, as he’s begun to swing harder, he’s also hit the ball harder. So far in 2026, Turang is hitting the ball even harder than in 2025, ranking in the 97th\u00a0percentile of the league at 96.0 MPH. That number may not be sustainable, but it’s a good initial sign for Turang to continue to produce extra-base hits.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTurang is overperforming his expected numbers so far in 2026. His expected batting average is .316, while his expected slugging is .656, which is below his current number. Additionally, his wOBA (.527) is slightly higher than xwOBA (.455). Obviously, his numbers won\u2019t be this high throughout the year, but it isn\u2019t unrealistic to say that Turang could finish with an OPS above .800 and 20 home runs.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking at the big picture, Turang will likely receive MVP votes once again, if he\u2019s healthy and performs similarly to last year, but a win of that award would be extremely difficult in a league with Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, Paul Skenes<\/a>, Juan Soto<\/a>, and other superstars. However, the better Turang does, the more he might feed into the club’s long-term success. Given the Brewers\u2019 spending habits, Turang isn\u2019t likely to receive an extension like the one recently given by the rival Cubs to fellow second baseman Nico Hoerner<\/a>. Top prospects Jesus Made<\/a> and Jett Williams<\/a> are pushing towards infield spots in the big leagues, while Cooper Pratt<\/a> just signed an eight-year extension a few days ago.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTurang won\u2019t be a free agent until the 2030 season, but the Brewers could look to move him as early as this offseason, as their top prospects develop. However, if Turang were to take another leap this year and finish within the top 10 of MVP voting, it would take a rare and extraordinary return for them to move him. Only time will tell what Turang will do over a full season, but with such a great first week in the books, expectations are rightfully high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning on Wednesday, when Yandy Diaz hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,3800,843,59,4280,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-660773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-brewers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brewers","10":"tag-brice-turang","11":"tag-milwaukee","12":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","13":"tag-milwaukeebrewers","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116340970692429352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}