J.T. Realmuto can no longer outrun the brutality of his chosen profession. The Phillies catcher, having battled knee discomfort all spring, is having right knee surgery. While Realmuto has dealt with knee pain for weeks, this is nevertheless startling news. Realmuto’s durability is the thing that makes him special; in 11 major league seasons, this is only his fourth stint on the IL (including a COVID quarantine period in 2021), and none of his previous trips have lasted longer than 22 days.
Moreover, Phillies Doomerism, as a mental health condition, is frequently comorbid with Sixers Doomerism. People who suffer from the latter probably heard the word “meniscus” flashed back to Joel Embiid collapsing in a heap and taking the Sixers’ season with him. It’s not quite that bad. Realmuto is headed for the longest injury absence of his career, but absent some bizarre complication, he’ll be back well before the end of the regular season. Even if that weren’t the case, no baseball player is as important to his team as Embiid is to his.
Nevertheless, the Phillies were built under the assumption that Realmuto would always be available. Since his initial callup in 2014, Realmuto has caught 9,377 innings, over 1,000 more than anyone else in baseball in that time; 5,130 2/3 of those innings have come since he was traded to the Phillies after the 2018 season, 14% more than anyone else. Realmuto’s 588 starts at catcher since 2019 are also the most in baseball during that time, and only Martín Maldonado is within 100 games of catching him.
Good two-way catchers are so rare that it’s basically unheard of for a team to carry a quality backup on anything more than a temporary basis. Nevertheless, the Phillies, who have started Realmuto behind the plate in 76.1% of their games in the past six seasons, are not well suited to adjust to having the remaining 23.9% balloon to 100%. The Phillies have basically punted the backup catcher position since Realmuto came north.
So the Phillies are bringing in a reinforcement in the shape of Rafael Marchán, a 25-year-old from Venezuela who was one of the organization’s top prospects a few years ago thanks to a plus hit tool.
Now for the good news. Phillies baseball ops czar Dave Dombrowski told reporters on Tuesday that he expects Realmuto to miss only a month or so. Meniscuses are weird, so every case is idiosyncratic. And having seen Stubbs up close, he must’ve been wearing ice skates and toting around about $100 in nickels when he got measured.
If the Phillies were in a close pennant race, or if Realmuto’s availability for the postseason were at all in doubt, I’d strongly recommend that they make a trade, rather than rely on these internal options.
