An offseason of anger for the Los Angeles Dodgers again boiled over Monday as third baseman Justin Turner took aim at Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred.
Turner took umbrage with the commissioner's characterization of the World Series trophy a day after Manfred called it a "piece of metal" when talking with ESPN's Karl Ravech about the possibility of stripping the Houston Astros of their 2017 title.
"I don't know if the commissioner has ever won anything in his life," Turner told reporters Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Maybe he hasn't. But the reason every guy's in this room, the reason every guy is working out all offseason, and showing up to camp early and putting in all the time and effort is specifically for that trophy, which, by the way, is called the commissioner's trophy.
"So for him to devalue it the way he did yesterday just tells me how out of touch he is with the players in this game. At this point the only thing devaluing that trophy is that it says 'commissioner' on it."
Turner remains displeased with the punishment meted out by MLB in the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal. Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were suspended for a year and ultimately fired by the team, yet no active players were disciplined.
"Now anyone who goes forward and cheats to win a World Series," Turner said, "they can live with themselves knowing that, 'Oh, it's OK. ... We'll cheat in the World Series and bring the title back to L.A. Screw [manager] Dave Roberts and screw [general manager] Andrew [Friedman]. It's just those guys losing their jobs. I still get to be called a champion the rest of my life.' So the precedent was set by him yesterday in this case."
Turner added that he doesn't think Manfred did enough to uncover everything the Astros may have been doing in their sign-stealing scheme. The league's investigation revealed a system in which the Astros were able to decipher a catcher's signs in real time and relay them to the batter via bangs on a trash can.
"I think it all comes down to everyone keeps saying, 'The facts, the facts. You don't know the facts. These are the facts,'" Turner said. "I don't think anyone knows the facts. I think everyone just wants to hear all the facts. And I think that the commissioner didn't do a good job of revealing all the facts to us. I still think there's some stuff we don't know."
Turner is the latest member of the Dodgers, losers of the 2017 World Series to the Astros, to sound off about Houston.
Closer Kenley Jansen called the Astros' cheating "worse than steroids." Right-hander Ross Stripling said he would "lean toward yes" when asked whether he'd bean a Houston player if he were given the chance in a game. And reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger went scorched earth, going as far as to say the Astros stole the 2017 World Series from the Dodgers and that Houston second baseman Jose Altuve stole the AL MVP award that year from Aaron Judge of the Yankees.