On Sunday, in a spring training game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, a funny and viral moment between a pair of long time teammates was the moment that stood out the most. Sure, this is not an abnormality by any means, except that the connection the two players had came from their days spent together on the Washington Nationals.
Those two players, of course, were Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. The pair of beloved former Nationals faced one another to lead off the contest between their new clubs, Scherzer's Blue Jays and Turner's Phillies, and created a viral moment that showed a bit of a playful side to both of them that had me reminiscing on their days in DC.
Turner, leading off the game for the Phillies, took strike 1 on a fastball from Scherzer, and immediately challenged the strike call using MLB's new ABS system that they are experimenting with in spring training, and shot a grin out to Scherzer on the mound, as they both laughed about the exchange.
Upon further review, the pitch was clearly a strike, but clearly Turner, who later confirmed that he was attempting to "troll" his former teammate, had seen Scherzer's comments last week regarding MLB's attempt to implement ABS in spring training, and felt that this was a good opportunity for the two to share a laugh about it.
TREA TURNER WHAT ARE YOU DOING 😂 pic.twitter.com/J2qAbFl3fl
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 3, 2025
Turner also added that he would not have done this in the regular season, because the future Hall-of-Famer would have actually been upset, but moments like these between former teammates are always fun to watch during the relaxing part of baseball season, spring training.
Watching this clip, I could not help but to crack a smile thinking about the two players who us Nationals fans seemingly knew very well, and all that the pair has been through with one another dating back to their days with the Nationals. As the broadcast acknowledged, of course, both players were initially teammates on the Nationals, and won the World Series on that 2019 team together, and of course were infamously traded away to the Los Angeles Dodgers when the Nationals began their rebuild back in 2021.
The pair have obviously remained good friends since, but seeing this video brought out such a massive wave of nostalgia within me that led me to go down a rabbit hole of watching 2019 playoff highlights. Hopefully, some day soon the newest Washington Nationals teams can produce some good baseball, help the front office learn from some of their previous decisions that risks are worth taking, and bring another title back to DC.
What did you think of this viral moment between the pair of beloved former Nationals? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.