J.T. Realmuto

The Phillies have been “quietly trying to” negotiate a contract extension with star catcher J.T. Realmuto and his representatives, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury reports.  It isn’t known how far along in the process the two sides are, though Salisbury cautions that a deal might not be completed until later in the offseason for a variety of reasons.

It isn’t any secret that the Phils are hoping to keep Realmuto over the long term, as GM Matt Klentak stated that sitting down with Realmuto about a new contract was “one of our offseason goals.”  Realmuto is only under team control through 2020, and is slated to be one of the most sought-after members of next winter’s free agent class unless the Phillies can lock him up in the interim.

Realmuto is projected to earn $10.3MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility, a more-than-reasonable sum for the sport’s best all-around catcher.  That one remaining arb year, however, could also factor into extension talks, as Salisbury suggests that the Phillies might prefer to work out Realmuto’s 2020 salary first rather than fold 2020 into a multi-year arrangement.  The average annual value of any contract is counted as a player’s luxury tax number, and thus the Phillies would surely want to keep Realmuto in the $10.3MM range for 2020 in order to give them more potential room to spend this season without crossing the $208MM luxury tax threshold.  A Realmuto extension (and subsequent higher AAV) therefore wouldn’t kick in until 2021 — Salisbury observes that Jake Arrieta and David Robertson will both be off the Phillies’ books at that point, allowing for more spending flexibility.

This isn’t to say that the tax threshold is necessarily a major concern for Philadelphia at the moment.  Owner John Middleton has suggested in the past that the Phils would be willing to pay the luxury tax if it meant adding the final pieces to a World Series contender, but not for “a little gain,” or “a better chance to be the second wild-card team.”  As presently constructed, the Phillies have a lot of work to do in order to approach title contention, so while Klentak and company certainly seem poised to be aggressive in the wake of a disappointing 2019 season, it seems like the club will stop short of exceeding the $208MM figure this winter.

Roster Resource projects the Phillies’ luxury tax number at slightly beyond $186.34MM, and that figure could certainly drop based on some rumored moves — potential non-tenders or trades of Maikel Franco ($6.7MM in arbitration) or Cesar Hernandez ($11.8MM), for instance.  That leaves the team with plenty of space to acquire multiple players, perhaps the starting pitching upgrades that seem to be a clear need.

The majority of contract extensions aren’t settled until Spring Training or even slightly beyond Opening Day, as teams generally prefer to get their offseason business completed before turning to in-house matters.  Though there is something of a ticking clock on Realmuto given that he is only a Phillie for one more season, the All-Star catcher has himself expressed interest in remaining with the team, so both sides would seem to have mutual interest in completing a new deal.

Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto will undergo a procedure to clean up the meniscus in his right knee, manager Gabe Kapler announced Wednesday (Twitter link via Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia). With the Phillies formally eliminated from postseason contention, he’ll go under the knife now rather than play out the season’s final series. There are no long-term concerns associated with the operation, and Realmuto is expected to be ready to go for Spring Training.

The surgery means that Realmuto’s season will come to a close with a strong .275/.328/.493 batting line in his first year with the Phils. Realmuto slugged 25 homers, 36 doubles and three triples over the course of 538 plate appearances while serving as something of an iron man behind the dish; no one in baseball has caught more than the 1139 innings that Realmuto did in 2019. The volume of that workload makes his output at the plate all the more impressive and heightens the value of his superlative defense. Realmuto threw out a ridiculous 47 percent of base thieves in 2019 and ranked among the best in the league in terms of pitch blocking and pitch framing.

Put simply, Realmuto is arguably the game’s best catcher. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak recently lauded Realmuto’s overall contributions and was rather candid in suggesting that an extension for the 28-year-old All-Star will be one of the organization’s priorities over the winter. The Phils control Realmuto through the 2020 season, at present, and he’ll command a sizable raise on this year’s $5.9MM salary in arbitration over the winter. Realmuto has voiced his own interest in signing a long-term pact to remain with the Phillies, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if the two sides ultimately hammer out a deal between now and Opening Day 2020.

Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto is dealing with a right knee issue that will require an MRI, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reports. Realmuto felt a “popping” in the back of his knee during the Phillies’ blowout loss to the Indians on Sunday, though the belief is that he’s not battling a significant injury, Zolecki writes.

The Phillies are just about done in the National League, where they’re six games back of a wild-card spot as the final week of the season begins. Considering the franchise oversaw an ultra-aggressive winter but is now days away from increasing its playoff drought to eight years, it’s fair to say this season has been a letdown for Philly. However, last offseason’s trade for Realmuto – previously a star with the division-rival Marlins – has been anything but a disappointment. Realmuto has been the game’s premier catcher for the second straight year, having parlayed quality offense, terrific base running and defensive virtuosity into 5.6 fWAR/4.3 bWAR through 593 plate appearances.

The Phillies have seemingly little to play for at this point, which figures to increase their cautiousness in regards to Realmuto’s health. He’s slated to enter his final season of arbitration control in 2020, but the Phillies have made it clear that they want to extend the franchise backstop before a potential trip to free agency in another year-plus. Realmuto’s future is one of the key issues general manager Matt Klentak & Co. will address in the offseason.

Although the Phillies are hanging in the National League wild-card race as time runs out in the regular season, it seems fair to say this year hasn’t quite gone according to plan for the club. After missing the playoffs for the seventh straight time in 2018, the Phillies reeled in more established talent than anyone over the winter, with star catcher J.T. Realmuto among several big names the team added. Some of those pickups haven’t produced as hoped, which helps explain why the Phillies are 3 1/2 games back, but Realmuto has more than held up his end of the bargain.

Acquired from the division-rival Marlins last February, Realmuto has been the game’s foremost backstop for the second straight season. The 28-year-old hasn’t been as formidable at the plate as he was in 2018, but his .277/.328/.496 line with 25 home runs in 576 PA is well above average for his position. And when the athletic Realmuto has gotten on, he has graded as one of FanGraphs’ premier base runners.

Of course, Realmuto’s value extends well beyond what he’s capable of doing on offense. He’s also a world-class defender, one who has thrown out an eye-popping 43-of-91 would-be base stealers this year. Realmuto’s 47 percent caught-stealing rate is good for first in the game, while he comes in third overall in Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average metric.

The all-around package Realmuto has given the Phillies this year has been worth 5.7 fWAR/4.4 bWAR, and it’s possible he’ll draw some NL MVP consideration as a result. Regardless, the Phillies love what they’ve seen, and they’re hopeful their union with Realmuto will last for a while. General manager Matt Klentak confirmed as much as a guest on MLB Network reporter Jon Heyman’s podcast.

Asked if the Phillies will work to extend Realmuto, Klentak told Heyman: “I think it’s fair to speculate that that’ll be one of our offseason priorities this year,” adding: “We hope he’s a guy who’ll be wearing a Phillies uniform for a long, long time. It’s something we”ll address this offseason, and hopefully we’ll be able to line up. We’ll see.”

Klentak also heaped praise on the well-rounded Realmuto for his contributions, saying: “There’s really nothing on the field that this guy can’t do. He has the best foot speed of any catcher in baseball — he doesn’t run like a catcher at all — he hustles all the time. He’s a really good fit for our city, with his style of play. In the second half, he’s been on fire at that plate. He was maybe more neutral in the first half, but in the second half he’s carried us at times. And obviously the defense is probably the separator. Not only the framing improvements, but also his ability to gun down runners. It’s a joke how good this guy is behind the plate — how quick he gets rid of the ball and how frequently he’s putting it right on the bag for our middle infielders to drop the tag down.”

It’s clear Philadelphia’s aim is to lock up Realmuto, though it’s not at immediate risk of seeing him walk. He’ll be controllable for another year via arbitration, where he’ll surely get a sizable raise on this season’s $5.9MM extension if the two sides don’t line up on a new deal. Realmuto, for his part, already indicated back in June that he’d be open to an extension. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained then, Realmuto shouldn’t have difficulty landing a lucrative contract of at least four years.

J.T. Realmuto was clear toward the end of his time with the Marlins that he wasn’t interested in signing an extension with Miami, but the All-Star catcher has taken a different tone with his new organization after just a few months. As Matt Breen of Philly.com reports, Realmuto wasn’t shy during this week’s All-Star festivities about expressing his interest in signing a long-term deal with the Phillies.

“Everything I’ve experienced in Philadelphia has been awesome, so I wouldn’t be opposed to spending the rest of my career there,” Realmuto told the media. It doesn’t sound as though there’d be any particular deadline on talks, either, as Realmuto indicated he’d be open to talks “whether it be tomorrow or in the off-season or next July.”

While plenty has gone wrong for the Phillies in 2019, their acquisition of Realmuto has proven to be a terrific move. His offense is down from last year in Miami (despite a move to a more hitter-friendly park), but his .273/.328/.438 slash line translates to roughly league average for a hitter, per OPS+ and wRC+. Relative to other catchers throughout the league, that’s considerably above-average. And defensively, Realmuto has taken his already strong game to a whole new level.

Realmuto leads the Majors with an incredible 49 percent caught-stealing rate, having thrown out 26 of the 53 players who’ve been bold enough to attempt a steal. His framing marks, once again, are comfortably above the league average, and Baseball Prospectus credits Realmuto as the game’s second-best pitch-blocker (behind Cleveland’s Roberto Perez). Realmuto is tied with Perez for second among all MLB catcher with 10 Defensive Runs Saved, and Baseball Prospectus rates only San Diego’s Austin Hedges as a superior defender behind the dish.

As can be seen in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, there haven’t been many catchers with four-plus years of service to ink long-term deals in recent seasons. Both Francisco Cervelli (three years, $31MM when he had 5+ years) and Salvador Perez (five years, $52.5MM as a 4+ player) did so in 2016, while Miguel Montero (five years, $60MM as a 5+ player) did so back in 2012. Montero’s deal is dated, though, while Cervelli wasn’t nearly as established a hitter and Perez was signing a make-good deal after initially inking an astronomically club-friendly extension as a pre-arb player. (Mammoth extensions signed by Joe Mauer and Buster Posey were outliers for prime-aged superstars coming off MVP seasons.) From an annual value standpoint, Yadier Molina is earning $20MM per year on a three-year pact that he signed when he was four years older than Realmuto would be in free agency. Yasmani Grandal secured an $18.25MM salary this past winter.

In a sense, a Realmuto extension could help to set some form of precedent for this type of player. He’s already earning $5.9MM in his second season of arbitration and could see that sum pushed to $10MM or more next year even without an extension. He’s on track to reach free agency in advance of his age-30 season, which would set him up nicely for a contract of four years in length. The Mets, as a point of comparison, were willing to pay a reported $60MM for Grandal at the same age, although that deal obviously never came together.

From a team vantage point, the Phillies could easily fit a long-term deal for Realmuto onto the books. Philadelphia opened the current season with a payroll in excess of $161MM (and has pushed $180MM in the past); the organization currently has just under $90MM on the books for Realmuto’s first would-be free agent season in 2021, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez.