{"id":616687,"date":"2026-04-19T07:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616687\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:52:28","slug":"j-t-realmuto-leaves-game-due-to-lower-back-tightness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616687\/","title":{"rendered":"J.T. Realmuto Leaves Game Due To Lower Back Tightness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies fell to 8-12 with Saturday night\u2019s 3-1 loss to the Braves, and they had a bit of an injury scare with their starting catcher. J.T. Realmuto<\/a> left the game during the sixth inning with lower back tightness, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer\u2019s Lochlann March<\/a> and others. Manager Rob Thomson said that Realmuto originally tweaked his back and left knee during a play at the plate on Friday (link via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com<\/a>). His knee was fine tonight, but his back issue flared up again. Rafael March\u00e1n<\/a> eventually pinch-hit for Realmuto in the seventh.<\/p>\n

Thomson doesn\u2019t think Realmuto will need to go on the injured list, although he probably won\u2019t play tomorrow. After posting slightly below average offense in 2025, Realmuto\u2019s gotten off to a better start in 2026. Through his first 15 games entering play tonight, he is batting .292\/.382\/.396 with a 123 wRC+. His power is down slightly, as evidenced by his .104 isolated slugging percentage. Realmuto has compensated by walking at a 9.1% clip, up from 6.4% last year, and cutting his strikeouts from 23.5% to 20.0%. His .361 average on balls on in play indicates some good luck, but nonetheless, the club is happy to have bounce-back production from Realmuto so far.<\/p>\n

The veteran catcher has a reputation for durability, especially for the modern game. From 2022-25, Realmuto led the league with 491 games started behind the plate. Cal Raleigh<\/a> was a distant second with 457 games in that span. Since joining the Phillies in February 2019, Realmuto has only been on the IL three times, with one of those being a one-day stint on the COVID IL in 2021. Given his age, production, and the fact that he\u2019s only just started his new three-year, $45MM deal, it\u2019s hardly a surprise that the club will give Realmuto a chance to rest, if only for a day.<\/p>\n

If his back remains a lingering problem, the club would turn to March\u00e1n behind the plate. Originally signed out of Venezuela in 2015, March\u00e1n has now spent over a decade in the Phillies\u2019 system. However, despite having over three years of service time, his big-league resume consists of only 261 plate appearances over 88 games. His career line of .228\/.290\/.376 (83 wRC+) is reasonable for a backup catcher, though his opportunities beyond that have been limited in part due to Realmuto\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

The two are the only catchers on the club\u2019s 40-man roster at the moment. Meanwhile, only two of the club\u2019s top 30 prospects are catchers according to MLB.com<\/a>, and neither one has reached Triple-A. If a depth option is needed, the club might explore the waiver wire or a minor trade.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Kyle Ross, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillies fell to 8-12 with Saturday night\u2019s 3-1 loss to the Braves, and they had a bit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,22729,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-616687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-j-t-realmuto","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}