J.T. Realmuto is sticking around as the Phils\u2019 backstop.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia is re-signing their veteran catcher on a three-year, $45 million contract, according to Matt Gelb of The Athletic<\/a> and Bob Nightengale of USA Today<\/a>, keeping the leader of their pitching staff in place. The deal includes $5 million worth of incentives per year.<\/p>\n Realmuto, 34, hit .257 with 12 homers and 52 RBIs in 2025 and again served as the backbone of one of baseball\u2019s most stable rotations.<\/p>\n The numbers tell the story. Over the past three seasons, Phillies starters rank third in MLB in ERA (3.88) and first in wins (181), quality starts (234), fielding-independent pitching (3.78) and chase rate (34.3 O-Swing%).<\/p>\n Realmuto first joined the Phillies in 2019 after the organization acquired him in a trade from Miami, later returning on a five-year, $115.5 million contract \u2014 which remains the highest average annual value ($23.1 million) for a catcher ever signed in free agency.<\/p>\n Since signing, he has made two All-Star teams, won a Gold Glove and caught more innings than any other catcher in the Majors. In that span, he\u2019s slashed .262\/.327\/.437 with a 109 OPS+, and his postseason production has been steady \u2014 seven home runs and a .745 OPS over four playoff runs.<\/p>\n Manager Rob Thomson has often pointed to Realmuto\u2019s approach as a separator. \u201cJ.T. is the most prepared catcher I\u2019ve ever been around,\u201d Thomson said back in October.<\/p>\n After the Phillies missed out on signing Bo Bichette, it became clear that a reunion was imminent. The club had reportedly extended a three-year deal to the catcher recently.<\/p>\n With Realmuto\u2019s return, the Phillies maintain a core piece of their roster and the familiarity that has played a central role in the club\u2019s rise over the past four seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J.T. Realmuto is sticking around as the Phils\u2019 backstop. Philadelphia is re-signing their veteran catcher on a three-year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-524237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115907377181085657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524237","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=524237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}