Whicker: World finally seeing Brewers’ Turang is an elite player
Milwaukee Brewers fans have known for years that second baseman Brice Turang is an elite talent, now the rest of the world is finally realizing it.
October 14, 2026
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
Brice Turang is old enough to remember being overrated.
He didn’t buy it. Now that he is being discovered as some sort of hidden gem, by a world that doesn’t stop by Milwaukee very often, he isn’t likely to be swayed.
There’s a theory, often advanced by those who coach hockey defensemen, that if you can stay right where you are long enough, everything that’s wrong will fall back into place, thanks to the earth’s rotation, and you’ll get the acclaim and the satisfaction you deserve, as well as the puck. In eight years, Turang has gone from old hat to Gold Glove, and even though he’s bigger and stronger, his essence hasn’t changed a bit. There is no team in baseball that wouldn’t trade its second baseman for him.
At this writing the Brewers lead the Dodgers, 2-0, in the National League Championship Series and, for the first time all season, the Dodgers are not the book favourite to win the World Series. That might be a premature evacuation. The Dodgers still have two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow to confront Milwaukee in Games 3-4 at Dodger Stadium, where many an opposing eighth-inning lead disappears into the tumult.
But the Brewers have already faced Tarik Skubal and Yoshiburu Yamamoto in this series and have survived to talk about it. In those games they kept coming back to recapture leads, and Jake Bauers took Yamamoto through a 12-pitch walk that probably ruined his outing, and the Milwaukee bullpen retired the final 15 Los Angeles batters in Game 2. So their confidence is earned, particularly in the quiet second baseman who drove in 100 runs, compiled an .816 OPS, and is in line to win his second Gold Glove in four years, with five errors in 591 chances at his preferred position.
His readiness for the NLCS was evident by the way he handled the first batted ball, by Mookie Betts. Turang ranged far to his right, into the shortstop frontier that he used to patrol, to scoop it and retire Betts. The Brewers had one hit off Skubal in the first three innings, but Turang led off the fourth with a home run to left-centre out of nowhere, for a 1-1 tie.
“A sinker on 2-and-0,” said Skubal, appreciatively. “All I can do is tip my hat to that.”
The Dodgers ended the second and fifth innings with double plays in which Turang was the middleman, and eventually the Brewers won, 2-1.
Game 2 began with an L.A run in the first inning, and Yamamoto, who was impossible for the Brewers to solve in last year’s NLCS, had a lead. But he didn’t have it by the time the Dodgers batted again. Turang drove a one-out double and scored on William Contreras’ single. Then he walked and scored a go-ahead run, and in the eighth inning he had an RBI single and scored again. Milwaukee won that one, 7-4, and now the Dodgers have to win four of five to take the Series.
Things are so abnormal in Dodgerland that they openly discussed benching Shohei Ohtani for Game 3, at least until Ohtani informed them that he disagreed with the theory. Manager Dave Roberts reported that Ohtani was “adamant” about staying in the lineup, even though he is 1-for-7 in this series, 3-for-20 in the postseason, and has not had a home run since August 18.
Turang is only 26 but has been a prominent entry in every scout’s report since his sophomore year at Corona (Ca.) High. He played on the 16-and-under U.S. team that also featured Royce Lewis and Hunter Greene, who were 1-2 in the MLB draft. As a junior at Corona he only struck out once. But when you’re that good for that long, you’re vulnerable to the allure of the new kids in town. Scouts knew they couldn’t sound very profound if they kept repeating that Turang was a probable All-Star. He fell victim to “overscouting,” with everyone squinting to find a flaw, and he tumbled to 21st in the draft, where the Brewers stood, pounding their gloves and yelling I-got-it.
Except that Turang had already committed to LSU. It took some exasperating negotiation for Turang to get the $3.41 million bonus he felt he deserved. Although he says he doesn’t remember saying it, he doesn’t deny that he finally told then-general manager Dave Stearns, “Don’t let a million dollars keep you from signing a Hall of Famer.”
Failure didn’t occur to Turang because he was surrounded by so much excellence. His mother Carrie was an All-American softballer at Long Beach State. His father Brian played briefly for the Mariners, and owns a workout facility in which Brice practically lived. Brian recalls slow-pitch softball games, after he retired, in which Carrie would play the outfield and routinely stun baserunners by throwing them out. She, Brian says, is the one who deepened the gene pool.
Brice’s sister Clarissa was the offensive catalyst for an NCAA softball championship at Oklahoma. Three other sisters played softball, soccer and volleyball in college. Ask Reggie Miller, who grew up in nearby Riverside and got a daily basketball schooling from sister Cheryl. There’s nothing that heats up the competitiveness more than struggling to beat your sister. According to Baseball America, the Turangs’ compulsion to win was illustrated best on a cruise. Clarissa and her husband, former NFL punter Tress Way, were playing cornhole. The game involved four people at first. Pretty soon, all the ship’s guests were gathered around.
“We wound up challenging the whole boat,” Brian said.
Such competitiveness may win the Brewers a world championship that will invalidate all of Rob Manfred’s theories about the connection between payroll and winning, which would be nice because those theories are the foundation of the expected off-season lockout. But it also could cost the Brewers, because, under current rules, Turang could become a free agent after the 2028 season, and a deluxe one at that. By then Turang could be far more than almost famous.
Fortunately, he’s learned to ignore opinions, especially pertaining himself.