Over the past year, there has been consistent speculation if the Marlins would trade one of their key assets - JT Realmuto. It seemed to be all but a sure thing during the fire sale that led the Marlins to trade off every other asset they had.
Last year, the Marlins made their intentions clear that they planned on rebuilding around Realmuto, and they would be offering him an extension. That has not happened and a few days ago, this came out:
NEWS: Jeff Berry, agent with @CAA_Baseball, on @MLBNetworkRadio just now regarding client J.T. Realmuto: “I think he will definitely be wearing a different uniform by the start of spring training.” Berry made clear that Realmuto won’t sign an extension with #Marlins. @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) October 30, 2018
Obviously, Realmuto doesn’t have the ability to force the trade, but with this information coming out and the Astros having a need at Catcher with the potential departures of both McCann and Maldonado, I figured it was worth exploring the possibility and opening up the discussion to our community again.
You guys may remember some writer did an article (my first fanpost ever) on the potential impact of Realmuto for a mid-season trade prior to the Maldonado trade.
I’ll take some exerts from that article to start the discussion:
Defense:
1.) Tied for the fastest pop time of any catcher in baseball. (Third best Arm / Third best exchange time)
2.) Best Caught Stealing Percentage (44%)
Speed:
Realmuto is by far the fastest catcher in baseball, which doesn’t sound super impressive. His Sprint Speed comes in at 28.6 Feet Per second. At that speed, he would be the third fastest player on our team behind only Derek Fisher and Jake Marisnick. More impressively, he ranks at roughly the 75th fastest player in ALL of baseball. That is incredible, especially given his position. It makes his 20 steals over the past 2 seasons before this one seem like an underachievement. The added base running value is huge, eliminating the need for a late inning running substitution.
Offensively:
Realmuto is a beast, hitting .277/.340/.484 with 21 HR. He came in at a wRC+ of 126, 26% better than the average player in the MLB while playing above average defense at the hardest defensive position in baseball.
WAR:
You may guess where this is going, a guy who hits well, runs well, fields, well.... ultimately results in a WAR of 4.8, the second best in baseball, literally was 75% of his production.
I don’t think any of the above is a surprise to anyone. Realmuto is the best catcher in baseball at this time, and has been in the conversation for a few years. I think that is what makes him so exciting. By adding Realmuto, you’re adding a player that legitimately is the best in baseball at what he does. He immediately becomes a core player of our team.
Obviously, all of that comes at a cost. While Realmuto only has 2 seasons remaining on his contract, you can be assured that the Marlins will not sell him “cheap”. Guessing a return package in the form of a trade, is more art than science, but I’d love to hear what you guys think it would take.
I think there are some legitimate other options at Catcher with Grandal and Ramos being other potential options.
So TCB’ers - you are GM for the day, you can do anything you want in regards to the Catcher position - how do you approach this offseason? If you want to trade for Realmuto what is your proposed package? If you want Grandal / Ramos or others - what type of dollar value would you be offering?