After officially reporting for spring training camp and completing his required medial exams, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner met with reporters in the team’s Camelback Ranch clubhouse on Monday morning.

“It’s one of the most exciting days of the year, getting a chance to get the whole club together, see all the guys after the off-season even though I’ve been staying in touch with most of them,” said the de facto clubhouse leader. “Just kind of shoot the s**t a little bit and catch up, see what’s going on. Other than the whole physicals and testing and that part of it, this is a pretty fun day for us.”

Although the Dodgers front office acquired several new pieces this off-season, Turner acknowledges that the roster is, for the most part, the same one that fell two wins short of making it to the World Series for the first time in 28 years.

“Yeah it is. I think everyone was really excited the other day when they brought Chase [Utley] back. That pretty much rounded out the club as far as last year goes,” Turner said. “Obviously with some additions, it’s tough to see Joe [Blanton] go and J.P. [Howell] go – great guys but we understand that it’s part of the business – but we’re excited about what we do have in here this year and trying to get to that World Series that we’ve missed out on the last four years.”

As every Dodger fan knows, the 32-year-old Long Beach, California native signed a four-year / $64 million contract this past off-season which will keep him in a Dodger uniform through his age-35 season. But with his new lofty (but well deserved) contract, does the popular redhead feel any additional pressure on him?

“No, I think it’s the same goal as it is every year and that’s to get to the World Series,” Turner said. “One thing in mind and do whatever you’ve got to do, make sure you take care of all the small things and get to the World Series. Anything less than that is going to be a disappointing year for us.”

When asked if he relishes his role as a clubhouse leader, he gave the answer that you might expect, complete with an air of humility.

“Yeah, again, I don’t think it’s anything different than my daily routine of talking to guys and making guys feel included. I think that’s just kind of the way I’ve always been,” said Turner. “Now that I’m one of the older guys it just makes it a little bit easier. Maybe I have a few more guys’ ears than I had three or four years ago.”

Turner was emphatic that the Dodgers not making it to the World Series last season had absolutely nothing to do with personnel issues. “We just kind of fell a little bit short.”
(Video capture courtesy of Dodgers.com)

What does Turner like most about the off-season moves that the Dodgers front office made this winter?

“Everything. Obviously bringing back Kenley [Jansen] and Rich [Hill] and Chase and all those guys. Not very often you see a team bring back four free agents in the same off-season,” Turner said. “It means a lot to me being one of those free agents and obviously a lot to us that we like what we had last year and we don’t think it was a personnel issue really. We just kind of fell a little bit short. So we’re bringing everyone back and we’re going to give this another run.

“There’s [Sergio] Romo, [Logan] Forsythe, there’s plenty of guys that are in here that are probably going to help us out a lot,” Turner added. “You’ve really got to tip your cap to the front office and the job they did and putting this club together, and creating the depth that they always do. I think one thing we found out last year – mainly last year – is depth is important to get through a long season that we have, so to create that roster flexibility and that depth is huge. I mean, we’re going to need all 40 guys, probably 50 or 60, however many it takes again this year to get where we want to go.”

That depth and flexibility gives Dodgers manager Dave Roberts the luxury of being able to give his eight-year MLB veteran third baseman an occasional day off.

“Yeah. Logan can play over there, Chase can play over there, we have a lot of guys – Kiké [Hernandez], Culbie [Charlie Culberson] – we have guys that can play all over the place,” Turner said. “So, again, the depth of the team – we have 10 outfielders, 10 starting pitchers – you don’t see that on very many rosters. So it’s going to make for a fun camp, it’s going to be a lot of competition, it’s going to be exciting. It’s always a good thing to have that problem than not having enough outfielders and not enough starting pitching. So, we’re in a good spot right now.”