Trea Turner misses part of workout while serving jury duty

By Mark Zuckerman

Nationals

February 22, 2017, 9:51am

Comments

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Scour through the annals of baseball history, and you'll find countless reasons why players miss a day or two of spring training. But you've probably never heard of this one. Certainly no one around Nationals camp recalled it happening before.

Trea Turner was absent from the start of this morning's workout before he was summoned for jury duty.

Yes, jury duty.

The odds of that happening to a ballplayer during spring training are remote, but the fact Turner lives in nearby Lake Worth, Fla., made it harder for him to be excused from serving.

Word of Turner's absence spread through The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches quickly and led to plenty of quips and general amusement. But before anyone could make too big a deal out of it, the 23-year-old shortstop tweeted that he had already completed his service:

"Justice has been served! Back to work! #GuiltyOrNotGuilty"

A short while later, Turner emerged onto Field 3 in full uniform, stepping right into the cage to take live batting practice against reliever Joe Nathan.

So was a court case really decided that quickly? Not exactly.

"He told me he was going to jury duty. Then he got there and he said they didn't need him," manager Dusty Baker said. "When they call, you don't have much choice. He seemed pretty happy about not doing it, though."

As with so many things he does on a baseball field, Turner's jury duty was over in the blink of an eye.