{"id":309747,"date":"2025-11-27T07:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/309747\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T07:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:06:08","slug":"phillies-remain-clear-favorite-to-reunite-with-fan-favorite-in-mlb-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/309747\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies remain clear favorite to reunite with fan favorite in MLB free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/philadelphia-phillies\/news\/phillies-clear-favorite-reunite-fan-favorite-mlb-free-agency\/54f04e8a87c2df6ee1554f5d?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Phillies remain clear favorite to reunite with fan favorite in MLB free agency;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Phillies remain clear favorite to reunite with fan favorite in MLB free agency<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The harsh reality of the situation between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/philadelphia-phillies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Philadelphia Phillies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> and J.T. Realmuto is that he&#8217;s indeed declined, but there also aren&#8217;t many better options out there for the Phillies to pursue.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Unless they have a trade in the works for someone like Adley Rutschman of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/baltimore-orioles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Baltimore Orioles;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Baltimore Orioles<\/a>, who some believe could be available, it seems like Realmuto is the best player available.<\/p>\n<p>Coming off a season where he hit just .257 with a career-worst 99 OPS+ in any year since his rookie campaign, his defensive abilities are still above average, and that could have an impact on what his market looks like.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how some feel about him, Will Laws of Sports Illustrated still thinks he&#8217;d fit nicely in Philadelphia, predicting him to re-sign with the Phillies.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only catcher on these rankings has been a rock-solid member of the Phillies\u2019 championship-contending core for seven years. Unfortunately, his first below-average offensive season in a decade signals either a classic case of a catcher declining in his mid-30s or some truly terrible timing. A return to Philadelphia seems like the best-case scenario for all involved, as he\u2019s likely more valuable to the Phils than anyone else at this stage of his career,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/2025-26-mlb-free-agent-rankings-signing-predictions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:he wrote;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are obviously a lot worse options out there than Realmuto, so Phillies fans who don&#8217;t want him back should probably understand that. Unfortunately, around Major League Baseball, there isn&#8217;t a slew of elite-hitting catchers.<\/p>\n<p>Realmuto was very good offensively at other parts throughout his career, but he&#8217;s also 34 years old and will be 35 before the start of next season.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies remain clear favorite to reunite with fan favorite in MLB free agency originally appeared on The Sporting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[52632,3966,49,48,138421,13307,462,481,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-309747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-adley-rutschman","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-harsh-reality","13":"tag-j-t-realmuto","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}