Trea Turner compared to Ty Cobb, Bo Jackson

ANALYSIS/OPINION

Yes, I was the guy. It was me.

I was the fool who wanted to trade Trea Turner.

No, it wasn’t a joke or a bit. It wasn’t to get clicks. I wasn’t trying to impersonate Skip Bayless.

If it had been up to me, Trea Turner would be in a Yankees uniform right now —and Aroldis Chapman would be the Nationals closer.

Pretty silly, huh?

Last July — when Turner was just considered a good prospect and Chapman was available with still another year left on his contract — I suggested that deal to Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo. He looked at me as if I had two heads. It’s not a value deal on the value deal sheet.

So you can imagine his reaction when, again this July before the trading deadline, I put it out there again — when we had seen far more of Turner’s potential and, this time, when Chapman was a rental player, a free agent at the end of this season.

Let’s just say he was kind — kind like you are to your grandfather when he thinks Ronald Reagan is still president of the United States.

And if it seemed foolish then, it has, of course, only gotten worse. When Turner first began setting the National League on fire shortly after being called up from Class AAA Syracuse, I said ’Let’s not get crazy. After all, he’s not Ty Cobb.’

And then he proceeded to be Ty Cobb.

In 61 games, Turner has batted .350, scoring 53 runs, with 91 hits, 13 doubles, 11 home runs, 34 RBI, an on-base percentage of .371 and a slugging percentage of .571. He has 29 stolen bases in 35 attempts.

Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss compared him to Bo Jackson.

Okay, I get it — he’s really good.

I already knew that — maybe not Ty Cobb or Bo Jackson good, but I knew that Rizzo had committed a Brinks job-like robbery when he got Turner and pitcher Joe Ross from the San Diego Padres for outfielder Steven Souza in a three-way deal with Tampa Bay in December 2014.

San Diego general manager A.J. Preller was just suspended by Major League Baseball for 30 days for allegedly withholding medical information from the Boston Red Sox when he traded pitcher Drew Pomeranz.

The Turner-Ross deal was so bad he should have been suspended for that.

Maybe I should levy a self-imposed suspension on myself for suggesting trades.

I should have known better

When I was covering the Baltimore Orioles in 1995, I spoke on a regular basis to owner Peter Angelos. Remember, those were the Angelos glory days, when he stood up to his fellow owners and refused to use replacements players during the baseball strike.

If you covered the Orioles then, you talked to Angelos several times a week, because he loved talking to reporters and would vent and reveal all sorts of stuff. But sometime he would ask for your input.

At the time, the Orioles had a center field prospect named Curtis Goodwin (remember him?). Angelos wondered if he should have him called up to be their center fielder that year. I thought it was too early. He had spent the 1994 season at Class AA Bowie.

So I suggested he sign a major league center fielder to a one-year deal with something to prove – like Andy Van Slyke, who after two-injury plagued years in Pittsburgh, was a free agent.

A few days later, the Orioles signed Andy Van Slyke.

He played 17 games, batted .159 and was traded in June to the Philadelphia Phillies for Gene Harris, a reliever who made just three appearances for Baltimore.

Andy Van Slyke was out of baseball by the end of the year.

So you would think I should know better, right? Let me try to explain my madness.

You can point to all kinds of reasons why the Nationals lost the 2012 division series to the Cardinals and the 2014 division series to the Giants, but if they had a closer who did his job, they would have likely won both series.

It seemed to me that five years after their first postseason appearance, the notion of looking toward the future — the control of a young player like Turner for six seasons — seemed secondary to moving beyond the division series this year.

In other words, if I were a Nationals fan, nothing would be more important to me than this team winning the World Series this year. And I believed — like the Chicago Cubs apparently believed when they traded for Chapman — that with his 103-mile-per-hour arm, he gives you the best chance to do that in the ninth inning of a big postseason game, a closer who gets some guys out while they are sitting in the dugout. A closer who strikes fear into opposing batters.

And even though Chapman was a rental — a free agent at the end of this season — it’s likely that the Nationals could have convinced him into a contract, especially playing for his former manager in Cincinnati, Dusty Baker.

If I told you that if the Nationals would have won both the 2012 and 2014 division series if Chapman — not Drew Storen — was on the mound, would you trade Trea Turner then?

I’m sorry. I can’t help myself.

There is this notion that Turner has somehow saved the season for the Nationals, conveniently forgetting that Washington was 16 games over .500 when Turner was called up onJuly 8 and in first place in the National League East by four games. And while center fielder Ben Revere was struggling, he was a better second half hitter the previous two seasons (.317 in the second half of 2015, compared to .297 in the first half; .319 in the second half of 2014, compared to .295 in the first half).

There I go again — trying to explain the madness.

Rizzo wound up getting a quality closer, Mark Melancon, without trading a Turner or any of the top prospects, sending reliever Felipe Rivero and pitching prospect Taylor Hearn to Pittsburgh.

Melancon led the major leagues in saves last year with 51 and had converted 30 of 33 saves with a 1.51 ERA when Washington acquired him. Since then, he has 12 saves and a 2.08 ERA.

But in six postseason appearance, Melancon has given up six hits (two home runs) and four runs in 5 2/3 innings pitched.

That should strike a Drew Storen-like fear in the hearts of Nationals fans.

Maybe Turner, though, will be such a difference maker in the offense that the postseason ninth innings will be just a formality.

If not — if there is another early playoff exit, another series of ninth-inning failures — at least Nationals fans can feel good about watching Trea Turner for six years. Right?