As J.T. Realmuto remains unsigned, there are plenty of rumors flying around that the Phillies are considering pivoting away from their veteran catcher. If that happens, the Phillies will likely need to sign a free agent or trade for a replacement to at least share time with returning backup Rafael Marchan.<\/p>\n
One name that\u2019s been suggested is Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins.<\/p>\n
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The background<\/p>\n
Jeffers has played six seasons, all with the Twins. After splitting time early in his career, Jeffers became the main starter at catcher in 2023 and developed into one of the better hitting backstops in the league. Hitting from the right side of the plate he hit 21 home runs in 2024, and while that number dropped to nine last year, he compensated by raising his on-base percentage to .356.<\/p>\n
Defensively, Jeffers would be a step down from Realmuto. When he first reached the majors, he was at least considered to be good at pitch framing, but those numbers have declined. He\u2019s also considered below average at throwing out runners.<\/p>\n
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Why he might be available<\/p>\n
The Twins are rebuilding, and although they say they\u2019re not planning on trading away more pieces, Jeffers is a year away from free agency, so they likely wouldn\u2019t turn down a good offer. They also have a surplus of catchers at the moment.<\/p>\n
Why the Phillies might be interested<\/p>\n
The Phillies don\u2019t really have a starting catcher at the moment. While he falls more into the \u201cgood hitter for a catcher\u201d category, and you probably don\u2019t want him batting cleanup (I also don\u2019t want Realmuto batting cleanup anymore), he would be a solid bat in the back half of the lineup.<\/p>\n
Why the Phillies would not be interested<\/p>\n
Jeffers is a year away from free agency. With limited trade capital, how much do they want to give up for him, and need to find yet another new catcher next year?<\/p>\n
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Would I make the trade?<\/p>\n
If the Phillies are going to trade for Jeffers and then spend more money at a different position (Bo Bichette?), I think I would be on board with a trade.<\/p>\n
However, I don\u2019t think you could justify trading either of your top two prospects for a one-year rental. And if Jeffers is just a Realmuto replacement with no major improvements made elsewhere, then I\u2019d just as soon bring back Realmuto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As J.T. Realmuto remains unsigned, there are plenty of rumors flying around that the Phillies are considering pivoting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,1250,7,113,6968,3212,822,60,3190,4,40,11353,1252,4131,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-510041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-christian-vazquez","10":"tag-diego-cartaya","11":"tag-j-t-realmuto","12":"tag-jair-camargo","13":"tag-mickey-gasper","14":"tag-minnesota","15":"tag-minnesota-twins","16":"tag-minnesotatwins","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-phillies","19":"tag-rafael-marchan","20":"tag-ryan-jeffers","21":"tag-the-twins","22":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115855306657579711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}