Dodger,” said Turner, a Lakewood native and College World Series champion at Cal State Fullerton. “Obviously, I grew into an everyday role. I rehauled my swing and started performing better and slugging better. Off the field, I got married to my wife, started a foundation and really have grown that to bigger than we ever thought it would be honestly.

Just all around, everything kind of in my life I feel like it has really taken off since the day I put the Dodger uniform on. So obviously it’s very special to me, growing up in Southern California and getting to wear that jersey and getting to be a part of an organization that has so much history and has so many people who have impacted the game in so many different ways. I’m just trying to do my little part.”

It has been much more than a little.

Turner started his charitable foundation in 2016 with a mission to support homeless veterans and families battling life-altering illnesses. He continues to work closely with the Dream Center’s community outreach programs to help the hungry and homeless in the Los Angeles area. Turner’s work with the Dream Center has been so impactful its food bank has been renamed The Justin and Kourtney Turner Food Bank.

In 2022, Turner’s charity golf tournament raised more than $650,000 for The Dream Center and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

“I’d always done stuff, whether it was in the minor leagues with the Reds, even back at Cal State Fullerton, getting out doing things with the Mets, getting into hospitals, visiting kids,” Turner said, mentioning former Mets teammates David Wright and Ike Davis and Dodgers teammates like Kershaw and Adrian Gonzalez as influences. “It never felt like a chore. It always felt like an opportunity to go out and meet people and try to help lift people up.

“When it really kind of took off for us was in 2016 when the Dream Center came to us and said they wanted to open this Veterans Program and they needed help raising money and they wanted us to put on a golf tournament and call it the Justin Turner Golf Classic. That’s really how the golf tournament started. … It was a huge success. We raised a bunch of money and got to open the men’s program at the Dream Center and that kind of set a light bulb off like, ‘Wow, this is amazing that our platform is capable of raising funds to support a cause that’s important to the city of L.A.’ From that moment, we were like, ‘We want to start a foundation. We want to be able to do more events like this. We want to be able to raise more money and impact more people on a larger scale than just when the Dodgers asked us to go do events.’ We wanted to be able to set them up and go do the stuff on our own. So we didn’t have to sit around and wait for someone to invite us to do these things.”

The Los Angeles City Council previously recognized Turner’s philanthropic efforts by declaring Jan. 22, 2019, “Justin Turner Day,” and now he has received MLB’s top honor for off-field contributions as well. “I couldn’t be more proud of this honor,” Turner said. “My wife and I have put our heart and soul into giving back to the city of Los Angeles and trying to lift people up in times of need. To be recognized on this platform here at the World Series is very special. Our work isn’t done. With this award I think comes greater responsibility and we look forward to impacting more lives in the future.”

Ironically, Turner is now in the position of sitting around and waiting for the Dodgers to make a decision about his future.

The 37-year-old third baseman’s contract expired at the end of the season, his ninth with the Dodgers. The Dodgers hold a club option for the 2023 season (at a $16 million salary) and have until five days after the conclusion of the World Series to decide whether they will exercise it.

“I’m as aware of my contract status as you guys are,” Turner said, describing it as being “just in limbo, waiting to hear what’s going to happen.”

“I haven’t heard anything,” he added. “I haven’t had any conversations. So I guess I’m kind of in idle and wait-and-see mode.”