There’s your blockade pierced in the catching market (and more opening up of high-end free agency, too). Top catcher J.T. Realmuto is returning to the Phillies on a huge contract.
The Philadelphia Phillies and JT Realmuto are in agreement on a 5 year $115.5 million dollar contract. Pending physical. Per source.
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) January 26, 2021
It has seemed for a little while now like this was what would ultimately happen (at around this price range), even as rumors about the Braves popped up (conveniently-timed for Realmuto’s camp, I reckon). For his part, Realmuto not only gets to stay with the club where he’s been the last couple years, but he also moves the ball forward for future players:
Realmuto with an AAV of $23.1 million dollars is the highest ever for a major league catcher in baseball history.
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) January 26, 2021
Now the question is what happens to the rest of the catching market. Yadi Molina is the top option still out there in free agency, though his return to the Cardinals remains strongly assumed. If you were looking for a big upgrade, then, your only option might be to hit up the Cubs about Willson Contreras, who is almost certainly very available.
Having been previously attached to Contreras, the Phillies are now out. But if they were considering Contreras their Plan B to Realmuto’s Plan A, it’s possible the Cubs were also holding things up to see what would happen here. In other words, even as Realmuto was never going to go to – for example – the Marlins, that doesn’t mean those Contreras-Marlins rumors won’t now kick back up with the Phillies now out of the picture. Contreras has also been connected to the Angels and to the Nationals at varying times. it’s also possible that other theoretical/rumored Realmuto suitors – Braves? Blue Jays? – could try to make a move, though you have to remember that there’s not a perfect parallel here between wanting five years of Realmuto for money and wanting two years of Contreras in trade.
Stay tuned, I suppose.