Trea Turner: My tweets were 'wrong and inexcusable'
Warning: Story contains coarse language
Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner said he regrets posting offensive tweets in 2011 and 2012 while addressing the matter on Tuesday in a press conference.
Insensitive tweets, including ones with gay slurs and a joke with racist undertones, surfaced on the 25-year-old's Twitter account hours after Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb had similar posts uncovered on the website.
Trea Turner #mlb #nats #nationals #washington pic.twitter.com/DewBZJNhcl
— All ATL fan brotha🤘🏾 (@Kam7810) July 30, 2018
"For starters, I want to apologize to everybody that was affected by things that I said," Turner said, according to ESPN's Eddie Matz. "LGBT community, African-American community, special-needs community, I'm truly sorry for what I said and I want to take full responsibility for that.
"I want to apologize to my teammates. I just had talked to them, to make sure they know my thoughts and where I'm at. I want to apologize to (general manager) Mike Rizzo and the Nationals for bringing this distraction to this team and the organization."
Turner, Newcomb, and Josh Hader of the Milwaukee Brewers have all come under fire recently for past comments made on Twitter. Turner, who made the remarks before he became a professional player, said it shouldn't matter when they were posted and that he's learned from his mistakes.
"It's not when I said the things that I said, it's that I said them at all," he added. "That's a clear learning point from this. Making sure that anybody is aware of what they're saying at all times and no matter how you use it or what context you use it in, words hurt. It's wrong and inexcusable for what I said. I know I said I'm an athlete and I want to use that platform for good and make a difference in a positive way and I think I can do that and I want to do that. Moving forward that's something I need to look into and make sure I'm doing. I just want to reiterate that I'm really sorry for what I said."
Turner has been receiving support from his teammates and manager Dave Martinez. A choked-up Martinez revealed on Tuesday that Turner cried while discussing the tweets, according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post, and acknowledged the infielder has to live and deal with this for the rest of his life.