3:20pm: The Phillies have now officially announced Realmuto’s IL placement, listing his ailment as back spasms. To open a 40-man spot for Stubbs, right-hander Max Lazar has been transferred to the 60-day injured list. Lazar began the season on the 15-day IL due to a left oblique strain. His 60-day count is retroactive to the start of the season, so he can be reinstated in late May. He hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment.
1:10pm: The Phillies are going to place catcher J.T. Realmuto on the 10-day injured list due to a lower back injury, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Fellow catcher Garrett Stubbs will be selected to take Realmuto’s place on the active roster. A corresponding move will be required to open a 40-man spot for Stubbs.
Realmuto was removed from Saturday’s game due to lower back tightness. He sat out the contests on Sunday and Monday before rejoining the lineup on Tuesday, though Gelb notes the injury was still limiting him. It seems the Phils and/or Realmuto have decided that he needs to rest up, rather than try to play through the issue.
That’s probably a sensible decision in the long term but the timing is challenging for the Phillies. They are out to a brutal 8-15 start to the season. They would be the worst team in the majors if not for the Mets struggling even more. The offense has been a particularly weak part for Philly thus far, as they have only scored 80 runs. The Mets and Giants are the only MLB teams with fewer.
Losing Realmuto won’t help. He hasn’t been on fire this year but his .259/.344/.352 line translates to a 100 wRC+, indicating he’s been exactly league average. Catchers are usually about ten points below par, so that’s actually pretty solid production for a backstop. It also has value in the context of so many other hitters in the Philadelphia lineup struggling.
For at least ten days, the Phillies will go with the pairing of Rafael Marchán and Stubbs behind the plate. Marchán has been part of Philly’s catching mix for years, debuting back in 2020, but hasn’t been able to get much playing time behind Realmuto. He has just 271 big league plate appearances spread across the years, with a .223/.283/.364 line and 77 wRC+. That includes a brutal .065/.094/.161 line so far in 2026.
Stubbs has also been in the Philly catching mix for years but both he and Marchán were out of options coming into 2026. The club dabbled with Stubbs playing other positions in spring but ultimately made the decision to go with Marchán as the backup and push Stubbs off the roster. He cleared outright waivers, allowing the Phillies to keep him around as non-roster depth.
That has led to today’s return to the big leagues. He has an excellent .289/.413/.632 line in Triple-A this year, but in a tiny sample size of ten games and 46 plate appearances. In his major league career, he has stepped to the plate 521 times and produced a .215/.293/.310 line and 70 wRC+.
Stubbs and Marchán will try their best to cover for Realmuto’s absence but his IL stint will make it a bit harder for them to pull out of this early tailspin. Ideally, he will heal up and return after a minimal absence. As mentioned, both Stubbs and Marchán are out of options, so one of them will likely be pushed off the roster when Realmuto’s IL stint is done.
Photo courtesy of Kyle Ross, Imagn Images
SMH
Getting late kinda early over here
I’m sorry dombrowski can’t seem to construct a balanced roster with 300 million dollars.
Mets and Phillies racing each other to the bottom.
That’s what he gets for smashing that hummer into Kevin Nash. Very rude.
That team got old fast. What a shame.
It has nothing to do with being 35. The play at the plate in Saturday’s game is where J T hurt his knee and back.
So why did he play the whole game yesterday? Every year, the Phillies love playing injured players when there are more than 100 games left in the season.
It’s a minor injury that J T tried to “play through”. No blame here.
🎶 …and another one bites the dust, hey hey!🎶
At least locker room glue guy Garrett stubbs is back
C’mon what is he going to do. He’s one of Thomson’s favorites, that’ how good he is. Thompson has to go.
Yea..sarcasm is something you might wanna read up on
Phillies fan my whole life and honestly, I don’t understand who makes these decisions? The doctors? The manager? The general manager? Do they flip a friggin coin? Every year on this team, you will see a guy get injured and it will take them five days to realize that he either needs to go on the IL or five days and they bring them into play and re-injures it and then goes on the IL. Either way they go five or six days at least three times a year with a short bench because somebody screws up.
It os almost like pro athletes get banged up regularly and when they try and play again is when they realize it might be a bit more…
Put Schwarber at C! Just for one game.
Bryce would do it.
Kept the band together 1 year too long. Sellers at the deadline.
What kind of inept GM resigns a 35 year catcher to a three year fully guaranteed contract?
The risks are too great. Too much money again tied up in paying for past accomplishments and not future performance.
Bad more, Dave D and Preston M.
*Bad move.
Ah one who signs Nola to that putrid extension.
@Jackson Its so odd that all you ladies who get on here just to complain and be negative all have male usernames
What does gender have to do with it ?
Not sure, here why I said it was odd.
The Phillies didn’t have an alternative to J T. He had to be retained.
Maybe Stubbs will bring the good vibes.
You can’t be serious
DD and Morey ( 76ers) made too many long term contracts to aged and worn out players putting their teams in a position where they have most of their $ tied up in ‘part time’ players. They are screwed for years.
The Phillies really had a disappointing off-season. I said it a few months ago, but they really should have shaken things up because that line-up just doesn’t get things done consistently enough.
I wish they moved Bohm for the best deal they could get (he’ll be gone next offseason anyhow, and now it will be for nothing gained). And I wish they saved the money spent on Alverado, Realmuto, and Schwarber and spent it elsewhere.
I realize some things are far easier said than done when it comes to making moves and spending money. But they could have done things differently instead of running it back with an aging core.
My fear now is that not only will this season be a rough one, but so will the next few that follow. I’d love to see them succeed because it’s much more fun that way. But my intuitions leave me feeling like Dombrowski really put the Phillies in a jam with the off-season moves this year.
Hopefully the starters can settle into place with Wheeler’s return (although I’m concerned about how he’ll perform following TOS surgery). And they obviously need the bats to get hot sometimes soon.
It’s felt dreadful so far.
They broke camp with a poor roster. Didn’t move Bohm, kept Moore rather than Reyes, and kept Walker around. Is the pitching in this organization that bad, that there is no one better than Walker.
Walker is being treated just like Ryan Howard who they ran out everyday when he could no longer play. They refuse to eat a bad contract and just release the guy.
Bohm was never going to be traded. That was speculation from one of the writers, and had almost a zero chance of happening.
Who specifically would you have spent that $ saved on? These last few free agent classes have been headlined by a handful of players and then rather sparse.
Father Time is undefeated
35 year old Realmuto breaking down. What a surprise. Too bad the Phillies gave in and gave him the 3 year contract he held them hostage for. He won’t last 3 years. Next year if there is a season or in 2028, he will get dumped at the trade deadline for whatever minimal return they can get for him, just like they did in the past with high priced washed up catchers Darren Daulton and Carlos Ruiz
Next season isn’t guaranteed yet, could be a lockout you airhead