An interesting offseason is awaiting the Philadelphia Phillies after the 2025 season. Franchise cornerstones Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto are each entering free agency, with the club likely to retain only one of the veterans. Any Phillies fan would tell you that Schwarber should be the team's choice, with them saying farewell to the once-best catcher in baseball.
That title now belongs to Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, who is blossoming into a perennial All-Star. He leads the majors with 30 home runs already, and just passed Johnny Bench for the most homers by a catcher before the All-Star break, per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com
The Mariners handed the backstop a six-year extension, crossing him off the Phillies' list of potential Realmuto replacements. The Raleigh extension suddenly makes the future of Seattle's top catching prospect look unclear, which is a situation the Phillies should be monitoring.
Phillies should consider Harry Ford as a potential J.T. Realmuto successor
The 22-year-old Ford has become a problem for Triple-A pitching. In 215 at-bats for Triple-A Tacoma, Ford is hitting .307 with an .895 OPS to go with his eight home runs and 39 RBIs. He was a first-round pick of the Mariners in 2021 and MLB Pipeline has him at No. 61 on its Top 100 prospects list.
It's very clear that Ford is knocking on the door of the majors. What isn't clear is where he'll play when inevitably called up by Seattle this year, perhaps he'll DH and split time at catcher with Raleigh, who is a Platinum Glove winner. Ford may be blocked as their catcher of the future, similar to Realmuto blocking Logan O'Hoppe, resulting in the Phillies parting ways with O'Hoppe at the 2022 trade deadline.
It's unlikely that Ford faces the same fate as O'Hoppe, as the Mariners have shown no indication that he's not part of their future plans. That doesn't mean that the Phillies can't at least kick the tires with Seattle reagrding Ford. The best time for the Phillies to call the Mariners about Ford would be this offseason if they decide not to re-sign Realmuto.
That's because the upcoming free agent catching class is incredibly thin. So either the Phillies can bite the bullet on signing an aging Realmuto on a shorter-term deal or go younger at the position via trade. They must be creative in asking around for young catchers like Ford or the Colorado Rockies' Hunter Goodman, who has an .842 OPS and 14 home runs.