Spencer Turnbull hasn’t been the same since his no-hitter. Now he’s aiming for a revival with the Phillies.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Spencer Turnbull kicked at the dirt on the mound. He lifted the rosin bag, bounced it off the back of his hand, got the sign, and came set with his 117th pitch, six more than he threw in any other game, major leagues or minors.

“Every single pitch, you’re throwing it as hard as you possibly can,” he recalled the other day. “To the nth degree.”

Turnbull uncorked a fastball — 94.7 mph, his 12th-fastest pitch of the game, according to Statcast — and struck out Mitch Haniger on a foul tip to finish the eighth no-hitter for a Detroit Tigers franchise that has existed since 1901. It was a Tuesday night in Seattle in May 2021, the 51st game of his major-league career, and Turnbull won’t ever forget it.

But does he regret it?

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It’s a valid question. Because Turnbull has made a total of 10 starts since the no-hitter. A litany of injuries, from a torn ligament in his elbow later in the 2021 season to a neck problem last year that the Tigers termed “discomfort” and Turnbull called “a fracture,” turned him from a building block of Detroit’s rotation into a nontendered free agent.

And now, at age 31, the righty is aiming for a revival with the Phillies.

Turnbull agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract last month, a few days before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training. He was looking to restart his career; the Phillies were looking for rotation depth. Those objectives may align, especially if Turnbull is willing to open the season in triple A. (More on that shortly.)

For now, though, two weeks before the Phillies break camp, it’s worth examining how Turnbull got here. He concedes that pushing his arm further than ever before “probably played a role” in the ensuing issues. But he cites other factors, too, including a swift return to the mound in 2021 after coming down with COVID-19 late in spring training and losing 10 pounds.

So, the question hovers, like a hanging slider: If he could do it again, would he trade one glorious night to get the last two years back?

“I don’t think I would,” Turnbull said. “Hindsight’s 20-20. It’s tough to look back and think that way, and I try not to because what are you going to do? It’s not productive. I don’t think it was that black and white, like pick one or the other. But even still, no. Competitiveness of the game and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”

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Besides, Turnbull has other things to occupy his time. After missing all of the 2022 season while recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery, he was finally able to have a typical offseason. He has tried to ride that momentum this spring. Seeking more horizontal movement on his slider, he’s working with Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham on a sweeper, a pitch that was effective for Zack Wheeler last season.

Turnbull tossed two hitless innings, with four strikeouts, in his first spring outing March 1 against the Marlins. He was waylaid last week by the flu but pitched one inning in a simulated game Monday and expects to get into another Grapefruit League game by week’s end.

“I feel normal for the first time in a long time,” Turnbull said. “I feel the ball’s coming out like it used to and my stuff is back to where it was pre-surgery.”

In that case, Turnbull could help the Phillies. He had a 2.88 ERA in nine starts in 2021 before going on the injured list. In the shortened 2020 season, he had a 3.97 ERA in 11 starts.

“He’s got really good stuff,” said reliever Gregory Soto, who teamed with Turnbull in Detroit and began warming up in the bullpen after he walked the leadoff batter in the ninth inning of the no-hitter. “He can throw hard and miss bats.”

As Bryce Harper put it, “Spencer could be a diamond in the rough. He’s got some nasty stuff.”

Some Phillies officials have firsthand knowledge of Turnbull’s upside. When the pitcher was drafted by the Tigers in the second round in 2014, Dave Dombrowski was running Detroit’s baseball operations and David Chadd oversaw amateur scouting. Chadd is a special assignment scout for the Phillies under Dombrowski.

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But barring injuries, the Phillies’ starting rotation is set, with Wheeler and Aaron Nola leading a group that includes Ranger Suárez, Taijuan Walker, and Cristopher Sánchez. Turnbull could make the team as a long reliever and keep his arm stretched out in case the Phillies need a starter.

It might make more sense to put Turnbull in the rotation at triple-A Lehigh Valley, but there’s a wrinkle. Because he has five years of service time in the majors, he must consent to a minor-league assignment.

Dombrowski said the Phillies weren’t allowed to make a side agreement with Turnbull when they negotiated his contract. But they are hopeful that he might realize the benefit in opening the season in Lehigh Valley to keep building arm strength after missing so much of the last three seasons. The conversation hasn’t come up yet.

“It just really would depend on the situation, so it’s kind of hard to know,” Turnbull said. “Any of those types of questions are for if it comes to have the discussion. Right now, I feel good about my chances to make the team. I’m focused on that.”

It’s better than dwelling on the past, tempting as it may be.

“You hear about guys throwing a no-hitter or going a complete game for the first time, a lot of them historically end up with an injury,” Turnbull said. “People can throw complete games and be fine. But if you’ve never done it before, with that amount of adrenaline and excitement over it, I think it can have a role.

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“Even still, I think I would’ve been fine had I not had COVID [six weeks earlier]. I was undertrained, and then doing it and having such a dramatic increase in workload that I’ve never done before, I think all that ended up being like a perfect storm.”

With any luck, the clouds over Turnbull might finally be lifting.