There are telephone calls that stick in the mind forever, critical conversations at pivotal moments in life. For Justin Turner, one of those calls came as he was getting into his car at his Los Angeles home on Dec. 2, 2013.

As a key member of the players’ association, Turner was about to drive with Kourtney Elizabeth, who is now his fiancée, to San Diego for a union meeting, where he would represent his fellow Mets players. Then his cellphone rang. It was Sandy Alderson, the team’s general manager, informing Turner that he was being let go.

In an instant, Turner’s world was rocked. He had had a productive year as a utility player in 2013, batting .280, and he had just begun to make changes to his swing that would bring huge dividends in the years to come. But he said that Alderson informed him on the phone call that the Mets needed roster space and would not tender him a contract for 2014, even though he had made barely more than $500,000 in 2013 and was not about to become an expensive item on the team payroll.

As Turner sank into the car, his career appeared to be crumbling.

“I still went down there to San Diego and was still a part of the meetings, because it’s all stuff that I care about,” Turner said at Citi Field on Friday as his Los Angeles Dodgers team, now the best in the major leagues, began a weekend series against a Mets club going nowhere. “But it was a weird, empty feeling being down there and not having a team. That off-season, I was trying to find a place to play, trying to get a job. It was a rough process.”