The Philadelphia Phillies have made a habit of disappointing their fans in the playoffs in recent years, but the team’s front office ventured into new territory on Friday when they dealt the fanbase a one-two punch of soul-crushing blows. Over the hill president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski compounded his embarrassing failure to sign star free agent Bo Bichette by panicking and grabbing the nearest life preserver he could find: longtime catcher J.T. Realmuto.
Bringing back a beloved Phillie is hardly cause for anger, but the manner in which it occurred struck most fans as a move designed less to help the team win a World Series and more to throw a seething fanbase a misguided bone.
Realmuto has been a key cog for the Phillies over the last seven years, ever since previous general manager Matt Klentak reeled him in from the Marlins in an all-time steal of a trade. During his tenure wearing red pinstripes, Realmuto has slashed .265/.328/.450 with 121 homers in an astounding 833 games, and was without a doubt the best catcher in baseball for a half-decade span.
The Phillies rewarded the Oklahoman commensurately, signing him to a five-year, $115.5 million pact ahead of the 2021 season, the largest contract ever given to a catcher at the time.
While Realmuto delivered wonderfully on that contract in totality, he is in fact mortal and the cracks in the armor have grown ever wider in the past three years. After a career-best 2022 season in which he posted an .820 OPS, Realmuto was more good than great in 2023 and 2024 with a cumulative .757 mark.
Phillies make J.T. Realmuto second-highest paid catcher in baseball even as his production slips
This past season was yet another step back, as the formerly well-above-average hitter saw his OPS plummet all the way down to a measly .700. He’s not totally without value as the pitching staff lauds his gamecalling ability, he still mows down opposing basestealers, and he runs the bases as well as anyone. Still, the fact of the matter is that the former franchise cornerstone is now simply a nice ancillary piece, and heading into his age-35 season steeper regression is imminent.
That’s what makes Friday’s three-year, $45 million reunion with Realmuto such an albatross waiting to happen. At 35 years old, Realmuto will be the second-oldest regular catcher in all of MLB, one year younger than Royals legend Salvador Perez who sees significant time at first base.
On top of that, Realmuto has spent the most innings behind the plate in the entire league in three of the past four seasons, an incredible workload for even a younger man. That’s not a guarantee that the three-time All-Star will completely crater, but it is an ominous sign that his production will continue to taper off.
And what will the Phillies be paying Realmuto for the twilight years of his career? Only the second-highest annual salary for a backstop, just $2.5 million shy of 60-homer MVP snub Cal Raleigh. Realmuto will outearn Will Smith, Alejandro Kirk, and William Contreras in 2026, all of whom are far superior players at this point. Moreover, the Phillies gave Realmuto another $15 million in incentives, meaning that the total value of his contract could reach as high as $60 million, or a jaw-dropping $20 million per year.
All this talk of financials brings things back to Dombrowski, as the veteran baseball man will almost assuredly spin this massive overpay as a well-deserved final chapter in all-time great Phillies career. While that may be accurate in a sense, the cold hard truth is that the length and value of this contract are completely out of touch with reality.
While Realmuto has been perhaps the greatest backstop in Phillies history, he can’t beat father time in a showdown. His career-worst 2025 campaign is likely a harbinger of things to come and the once-elite all-around player is now more of a strong locker room presence and average-at-best offensive contributor.
J.T. Realmuto's contract isn't Dave Dombrowski's first mistake with a veteran player
Dombrowski has given out more than a few enormous deals in his Phillies tenure, and some have worked out better than others. Kyle Schwarber’s 2022 contract was a stroke of genius, while that same winter’s nine-figure Nick Castellanos deal is still hamstringing the club years later. Trea Turner has made good on his $300 million pact thus far, but Taijuan Walker’s complete flop still has another $18 million to go.
The worst of all is erstwhile hurler Aaron Nola, who is eating up over $24 million annually to play the worst baseball of his career. Like Realmuto, Nola was a Phillies icon when he reached free agency after the 2023 season, having spent nine years with the club to that point and being one of the only bright spots on some truly horrific rebuilding clubs. Unfortunately, just like Realmuto, Nola’s decline had already begun at that point, as the former All-Star turned in an ugly 4.46 ERA in his age-30 season and had seen virtually all of his peripheral metrics drop off precipitously.
In light of that Dombrowski still somehow chose to re-sign the soft-tossing right-hander to an onerous seven-year, $172 million pact which would take Nola through his age-37 season. The crafty veteran was productive in the first year of that deal, but was perhaps the worst pitcher in all of baseball in 2025, posting an ERA above 6.00 in a half season’s work. With injuries mounting and skills declining, it’s all but assured that Nola’s best days are behind him.
The lesson from the Nola contract should have been clear to anyone watching the Phillies this past season: backing up the Brinks truck for past-their-prime franchise legends is not just risky, it’s suicide for an MLB team. Nola’s $24.5 million annual salary ate up an enormous chunk of an already-stretched payroll for a team that needed multiple additions to compete for a championship.
Phillies have been unable to fix roster holes thanks to poor payroll management
The outfield has been a black hole for years, and instead of a meaningful acquisition Dombrowski signed reclamation project Max Kepler who continued the status quo. The bullpen was multiple arms short, but the only reinforcement was the corpse of Jordan Romano who quickly became public enemy No. 1.
Those self-immolations were just the latest in a years-long trend of band-aids slapped onto cannonball wounds. Whit Merrifield, Josh Harrison, Jeurys Familia and playoff hand grenade Craig Kimbrel are further examples of Dombrowski attempting to fit a screen door onto a submarine.
The only reason Dombrowski has continuously shopped on Temu for the finishing touches to a World Series-caliber team is that he simply has no other option. A payroll north of $300 million has necessitated the pinching of pennies for auxiliary pieces and that has roared its ugly head in a complete lack of depth at the major league level. And yet, this serves not as an excuse for the future Hall of Fame executive, but as a damning indictment of his failed Phillies tenure.
The reason the team’s payroll is so astronomically bloated with still so many holes to fill is because of Dombrowski’s own mismanagement. The massive whiffs on Castellanos, Walker, and Nola, combined with better but still massive contracts for Zack Wheeler, Schwarber, and Turner leave no breathing room.
However, there was light at the end of the tunnel only one week ago. Castellanos and Walker are both entering the final year of their contracts, while Wheeler has only two years left. Those three combined are making $80 million annually. Add in smaller, but still significant salaries for Brad Keller, Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, Adolis García, Jesús Luzardo, and José Alvarado which will all finish up this year or next, and the Phillies will be looking at well over $100 million in savings by 2027.
An incredibly messy set of books should get a whole lot cleaner, allowing the club to redistribute those funds to more adequately address the team’s needs. And what did Dombrowski do with this magnificent opportunity? He tied up another significant amount of money in an aging veteran whose production has already slipped. Suddenly, that $100 million greener pasture has a $15 million chunk taken out of it.
Dave Dombrowski panicked, there’s no other way to put it. He thought he had pulled off a coup by signing Bo Bichette, but when the music stopped and he was left without a chair he knew he needed to do something to fend off a justifiably bloodthirsty fanbase. The only realistic option he had was old reliable Realmuto. Unfortunately, Realmuto knew he had Dombrowski and the Phillies over a barrel and made them pay dearly for it. To retain his services, the Phillies had to give Realmuto an inadvisable contract length for an inadvisable amount of money.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was that Phillies fans saw right through Dombrowski’s charade. The bait-and-switch from Bichette to Realmuto wasn’t just ineffective, but it backfired immediately.
Despite the exorbitance of the contract’s terms, a Realmuto reunion should’ve been cause for celebration for many fans. A beloved franchise leader locking in the final chapter of his career should’ve been welcome news. And yet, in the wake of the Bichette gut punch it struck the fanbase as desperate and tone-deaf.
Like a child pointing out an A in gym class on a report card littered with F’s, Dombrowski wasn’t fooling anyone. Dombrowski became a laughingstock overnight as he not only failed to get his guy, but immediately compounded his mistake by throwing money at the nearest shiny object.
The Phillies will still be a good team in 2026, and a World Series run isn’t completely out of the question. Unfortunately, the same old song is playing yet again for the Dombrowski-era Phillies, as misguided money moves and shoddy roster construction have turned a wide-open championship window into a narrow peephole.