Philadelphia Phillies: 3 affordable free agent catchers to “replace” JT
By David Esser
The Philadelphia Phillies have to add a catcher this offseason – whether it’s J.T. Realmuto or someone else.
Regardless of what Mets fans want to tell you, there’s simply no replacing J.T. Realmuto. Taking into account his defensive and offensive capabilities, he’s the best catcher in baseball – and it’s not particularly close. The Philadelphia Phillies are well aware of this, but their desire to shed salary in 2021 isn’t exactly in line with handing over the largest catcher contract in MLB history.
If the team does in fact decide to let Realmuto walk this winter, they still have to replace him in some capacity.
Andrew Knapp isn’t built to catch 162 games, and the team doesn’t have any major league ready catchers under works in the minors.
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With James McCann officially off the board, here are three other, far cheaper options the team could target:
Mike Zunino
2020 Team: Tampa Bay Rays
2020 Salary: $4.5 million
If Dave Dombrowski decides that defense > offense this winter (the team’s reported interest in Jackie Bradley Jr. could be signaling this much), then last year’s AL champion Mike Zunino makes a ton of sense.
While Zunino’s bat is a major weak point to his game (career .200 hitter), he’s one of the better defensive catchers in baseball, and he’s one of the best game callers as well. He had an abundance of success working with the Ray’s league-best pitching staff last season, and a guy like Zach Eflin would likely benefit a ton from his presence on the Phillies.
Zunino could see some solid interest this offseason due to his strong postseason performance, but nothing compared to the likes of Realmuto and his potential $25+ million asking price.
UPDATE: The Rays decided to re-sign Zunino literally a few hours after this was published. Cool…