GREAT CATCH: PHILLIES TRADE FOR REALMUTO
Phils land J.T. Realmuto, the ‘best catcher in baseball’
As spring training gets closer – Phillies pitchers and catchers have their first workouts set for Wednesday – Philadelphia fans have becoming increasingly impatient with the lack of recent offseason moves.
Despite adding Jean Segura, Andrew McCutchen and David Robertson since the Phillies finished 80-82 last season, the team's fans still wanted more. They got their wish Thursday afternoon.
It wasn't Bryce Harper. Nor was it Manny Machado. But it might have been the next best available player for this roster as the Philladelphia acquired catcher J.T. Realmuto, whom Phillies General Manager Matt Klentak began a Thursday conference call by describing him as “the best catcher in baseball.”
Klentak said he believes the first time the Phillies checked in with the Miami Marlins on Realmuto was last July, but as far as the offseason is concerned, they touched base in October and November. From there, Klentak, as he tends to do, periodically checked in every few days or weeks to “keep
our finger on the pulse.”
It was a Saturday night text message to Mike Hill, Marlins president of baseball operations, that really got things moving. Negotiations picked up Sunday and lasted through the finalization Thursday.
The price Miami set for the best catcher in baseball was steep. The Phillies parted ways with catcher Jorge Alfaro, righthander Sixto Sanchez, lefty Will Stewart and international bonus pool money to land the 27-yearold, 2018 NL All-Star catcher. But Klentak obviously thinks the price was worth it.
“I think J.T. Realmuto is the best catcher in baseball so I think the upgrade is pretty significant,” Klentak said. “It's hard to acquire top players at any position, especially at the catcher position. We knew that if we were going to access J.T. we were going to have to give up some talent in return.”
Klentak is right in saying it's a significant upgrade, and it's an improvement on both sides of the ball.
Realmuto, a career .279 hitter who batted a career-high .303 in 2016, surpassed the 20-home run mark last season for the first time while slugging .484. He drove in 74 runs and recorded at least 30 doubles for the thirdstraight season. Last year, Phillies catchers combined to hit .257, slugged .399, hit a total of 14 homers, 29 doubles and drove in 63.
Behind the dish, Realmuto comes highly praised. Klentak said he received text messages and calls from a number of people who have been around Realmuto and they talked about how much confidence pitchers have in his blocking abilities and his positive presence behind the plate. Klentak made clear none of his praise for Realmuto was a knock on Alfaro, who has had his struggles behind the plate.
Even without Harper or Machado, the Phillies' lineup has the ability to be quite dangerous in an ever-improving National League East. As it stands now, a lineup could look something like McCutchen, Segura, Nick Williams, Rhys Hoskins, Realmuto, Odubel Herrera, Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez. That's a much stronger lineup than any that's been put together in South Philadelphia since the team's five-year reign at the top of the division.
But there's still the possibility of it improving even further. Klentak confirmed adding Realmuto doesn't really affect their approach to free agency.
“In a very forward sense, J.T. Realmuto's salary fits into our payroll very well and still leaves us with a lot of payroll flexibility,” Klentak said. “In a financial sense, it doesn't really change the equation too much. … I don't think this takes us out of the free-agent market by any stretch.”
That means the daily Harper and Machado rumors will continue for the time being.
Possibly the toughest piece for the Phillies to part with was Sanchez. Even though the 20year-old right-hander has yet to pitch above Single-A, he had become a household name thanks to headlines about his 100-plus mph fastball, which also helped skyrocket up prospect lists.
While dealing Sanchez, their top prospect according to Baseball America, could hurt years down the road, history is on the Phillies' side with this being a smart move. Looking back to 2010, only one of their top prospects picked by Baseball America is still with the franchise and that's Maikel Franco (2014). J.P. Crawford, their top prospect from 2015 to 2018, was traded earlier this offseason for Segura. The others on that list are Jesse Biddle (2013), who finally reached the majors last year with the Braves after a rocky road through the minors, Trevor May (2012) who enjoyed his first minor bit of success at the highest level last season with the Twins, and Domonic Brown, who hasn't played affiliated baseball since 2017.