{"id":681357,"date":"2026-04-22T22:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681357\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:15:19","slug":"spiraling-phillies-place-catcher-jt-realmuto-on-il-in-latest-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681357\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiraling Phillies place catcher JT Realmuto on IL in latest blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies\u2019 tough start might be overshadowed by the Mets\u2019 dismal opening to 2026<\/a>, but the rival National League East squad is facing some really hard times of its own. <\/p>\n

And things got a little tougher on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Philadelphia placed catcher J.T. Realmuto on the injured list with back spasms while Garrett Stubbs was summoned from Triple-A in a corresponding roster move. <\/p>\n

\"PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia Phillies catcher JT Realmuto (10) runs to first after hitting a single against the Chicago Cubs in the fourth inning at Citizens Bank Park on April 14, 2026. Kyle Ross-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Realmuto exited Saturday\u2019s game against the Braves early with back tightness and then sat out the next two contests. The three-time All-Star did return Tuesday night in a loss to the Cubs, going 0-for-4.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old signed a three-year, $45 million contract<\/a> in the offseason to return to the City of Brotherly Love and has been one of the more productive players on an underachieving roster. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He\u2019s hit .259\/.344\/.352 with a league-average 100 wRC+ to give the Phillies some solid offense from the catcher position. <\/p>\n

And while Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber are hitting like you\u2019d expect, a lot of the Phillies\u2019 other regulars are struggling with the team mired in a seven-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

Adolis Garcia (80 wRC+), Trea Turner (78 wRC+), Bryson Stott (46 wRC+) and Alec Bohm (10 wRC+) \u2014all of whom have at least 65 plate appearances \u2014 have failed to do much in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

\"PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia Phillies catcher JT Realmuto (10) looks on against the Washington Nationals. Kyle Ross-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Only the 12-game slide from the Mets (7-16) has kept the Phillies (8-15) from falling into the NL East basement, though they lead the Amazin\u2019s by just one game.<\/p>\n

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters Tuesday that he is not looking to remove manager Rob Thomson from his post. Simply put, he said the team just hasn\u2019t played up to par.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just haven\u2019t played very well. It\u2019s really every portion of our game,\u201d Dombrowski said. \u201cThere\u2019s been some individual players that have done fine, by all means, who are doing well. As a group, I don\u2019t think any part of our team has excelled: offensively, pitching-wise, starting pitching-wise, defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillies\u2019 tough start might be overshadowed by the Mets\u2019 dismal opening to 2026, but the rival National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,113,4,7439,144,25,4216,40,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-681357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-j-t-realmuto","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-nl-east","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","14":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","15":"tag-phillies","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116450672072497588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681357","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=681357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}