J.T. Realmuto’s Best Season as a Phillie is Right Around the Corner
All of us fellow die-hards know J.T. Realmuto holds the B.C.I.B. title with little to no competition. Defensively, he ranks right beside and may even be better than “Chooch” Carlos Ruiz. Without question in the box, Realmuto is the best catcher to sport Phillies pinstripes, and even though we’ve seen two seasons, more realistically, a season and a half in terms of the number of games played. JT’s best season as a Phillie is on its way this year.
Let’s start by acknowledging that this is his first camp, with the Phillies being familiar with everyone in the clubhouse and having a more developed on-field rapport with his teammates. I don’t count last year’s start and stop camps. In no way did it help build more continuity within the team. A player’s comfort level in the city and throughout the dugout are two extensive factors determining how well a player will perform. Alongside that, the “Phandemic Krew” made sure JT would feel the fans’ admiration even when it was highly inconvenient to do so. Which and struck a chord with JT; he specifically mentioned the impact the fans have had on him thus far during his Zoom press conference after inking his deal. Outside distractions potentially can manipulate positive developments from occurring on the diamond, but seeing as though JTs mitigated any issues of that sort, his play behind the dish will take complete precedent.
Now to the actual field of play, other than his batting average and his slugging percentage decreasing by .002 percentage points from .493 to .491, Realmuto’s numbers have increased each of the two years he’s resided in Philadelphia. His on-base percentage went from .328 to .349, and his on-base plus slugging shot up to a career-high .840. Paired with his blistering hot bat from last season, where he recorded 11 home runs in 47 games, and in an entire season (145 games, the amount he played in 2019), would’ve amounted to 34, beating his career-high of 25, which he set during his first season in Philadelphia.
Initially, I paused when considering this topic, but JT made that decision easy for me taking a Tommy Milone change-up yard in his first at-bat of the spring. Like Bryce, when players of their stature start the season campaign off in such a fashion, you have to know there will be much more positive play to follow. Aside from his offensive production and well renowned defensive prowess, an underrated trait in my eyes are how his pitchers speak about and look forward to throwing to him. Two immediate names that come to mind are Zack Wheeler and Archie Bradley, two huge acquisitions to the starting rotation and back half of the bullpen in back-to-back off-seasons. Both of them spoke to how JT’s presence behind the plate influenced their decision to come to play at The Bank.
That said, our friends over at “Baseball-reference.com” seem not to share my enthusiasm for the B.C.I.B.’s upcoming season. It is nothing too crazy or disrespectful, just more of a lazy copy and pasting of last year’s numbers plus or minus a couple of numbers. In 2021 they project J.T. Realmuto will hit .263 with an OBP of .330 and OPS. of .798 with 22 home runs, 73 RBI’s, and 115 strikeouts. All of these numbers projected are lower than Realmuto’s only entire season with the Phillies. From what I pointed out earlier, last year, JT set a pace to set a new career-high in home runs in a single season, so for the homerun and OPS projections to dip quite a bit lower from where he’s stood these past few seasons is frankly laughable.
Not to mention he just turned 30 and is a young 30 at that. In reality, JT will hit 32 home runs with 95 RBI’s, OBP of .350, OPS of .825, and another year of silver slugger and glove awards to add to his collection. Not to mention, he’ll be an All-Star again too. He’s locked up for another five years, so find your favorite seat in the house recline and enjoy the B.C.I.B show in Philadelphia starring J.T. Realmuto.
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