Trea Turner wins batting title vs. ex-Nats teammate Juan Soto originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Despite the Nationals deciding to hit the rebuild button this season at the MLB trade deadline, it didn’t affect the performance of outfielder Juan Soto.
Instead of mailing in the final two months of the season following the trades of veteran players such as Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, and Kyle Schwarber, Soto picked up his production.
The 22-year-old understands he’s the face of the organization, and he’s ready to take on the responsibility as he was in a race for the National League batting title with his former teammate Turner, who was traded with Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Soto finished the 2021 season on Sunday with a batting average of .315. Meanwhile, Turner finished at .328, edging out his former teammate in the season’s final week. Soto was hitting .325 with just nine games to go.
Turner, who was batting .320 at the same point and looked to be fading before he surged at the end, used a little sarcasm about the batting title race on Sunday after the Dodgers defeated the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I thought I was going to have a little bit more pressure on me this last week, or I was going to have to put pressure on him. I thought it’d be a little bit more of a race. I’ll ask him what happened. Gotta see what happened,” Turner stated postgame tweaking his friend and ex-teammate a little bit.
If Soto can carry the form he had in the final two months of the season into next year, there’s no doubt that the Nationals outfielder will be competing for another batting title against Turner in 2022.