Philadelphia Phillies: Time is running out to pay JT Realmuto
By Sam Wagman
Are the Philadelphia Phillies going to lose JT Realmuto after this season?
It definitely feels like we’re starting to beat a dead horse on this one. Pay JT Realmuto, we say. We say it during almost every Philadelphia Phillies game at this point, cause let’s face it, he does something good in almost every single game! As the season continues to go on, Realmuto continues to produce, and his price tag only climbs higher.
Realmuto is the best catcher in baseball, and it isn’t particularly close. He throws out almost every player that seriously attempts to steal second, and he not only leads the Phillies with 8 home runs and 22 RBI’s, his OPS is almost over 1.000 and he only seems like he’s getting more comfortable as the season goes on.
The real issue here, though, is that the compensation that the Phillies gave up for Realmuto was pretty steep. Other players and cash aside, the major piece in the deal that went back to the Miami Marlins was the Phillies best prospect at the time, righty and potential future ace Sixto Sanchez. Sanchez had been quickly getting ready to debut in the show “The Show”, but was still about a year away when this trade went down.
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The reason I’m bringing this all back up now is because Sanchez has finally made his major league debut. He didn’t have a perfect game, as he allowed three runs in five innings and left with a lead against the Washington Nationals.
In his brief start however, he showed some of the stuff that had the Phillies, and now the Marlins, so enamored with in the minors.
He has a fastball that found its way into the triple digits more than once, a beautiful tight slider, and a nice fading changeup (per Corey Seidman of NBC Sports).
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The Phillies have to pay Realmuto this offseason, because it is the only thing that makes sense for this organization that gave up its top pitching prospect. It may take the entire season, during which Realmuto is realistically only going to drive his price even higher by continuing to mash dingers. At the end of the season however, if Matt Klentak does not come to the conclusion that not only is it wise to sign the player you gave up a possible future ace for, but that’s it’s necessary, then the front office will have made a MAJOR mistake.