As the 2024 MLB season is officially over for the Philadelphia Phillies, it is time for them to start planning ahead for the upcoming year, with hopes for some redemption after their early playoff exit. Despite being still quite early, one area that the Phillies have hinted about is their catcher situation going forward.
As suggested by Matt Gelb of The Athletic, it may be time that the Phillies started limiting the number of starts for veteran catcher J.T. Realmuto, closer to 100 games than his usual 120+ games (subscription required). After all, he will be 34 by the time the 2025 regular season begins. More importantly, even Phillies manager Rob Thomson believes the extra rest would allow him to be most effective and put up better numbers as a result.
Phillies hint that Rafael Marchán will be in their backup catcher plans for 2025
In order for that to come to fruition, that means more playing time for the Phillies’ backup catcher. As for the candidates, Gelb points out that Garrett Stubbs has a minor league option remaining, whereas Rafael Marchán can no longer be sent back to the minors in 2025.
So the Phillies will need to decide: Should they continue to go ahead with the defensively-minded Stubbs, or should they deviate and go with the option with greater offensive potential in Marchán to complement Realmuto?
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski appeared to have the answer to that, with some reservation at the same time.
“We like Marchán a lot,” Dombrowski said, per Gelb. “We think he’s a real good catcher. He’s shown some offensive prowess also … He’s had a lot of injuries, but when he has played, he has played very well. So I think we have some people capable of doing that internally. But I can’t tell you that they’ll be for sure given the job.”
Marchán comes with injury concerns
That sounded like Marchán will get a fair shot at overtaking Stubbs for the backup catcher position for the upcoming season. It comes with one caveat, though: Marchán will have to overcome his history of injury.
Marchán had missed significant parts of his past couple of seasons, whether it was an injury to his right hand, his lower back, or, more recently in the past month, his left shoulder. However, when he has had the chance to play, he has been dynamite. This past season, Marchán hit .294 with an .894 OPS, with eight runs scored, four doubles, three home runs and six RBI in just 17 games with the Phillies when Realmuto was out.
Hopefully, the 25-year-old Marchán will finally be fully healthy in the coming season and have all his injury troubles behind him for good.
Phillies fans should prepare to be excited as it appears that Stubbs and Marchán will likely battle it out in spring training. In the end, they should either get a prolific-hitting Marchán finally securing his MLB spot on the roster, or a refreshed Stubbs who will raise his game considerably to keep his spot on the roster.
For now, Marchán may have a little head start after the vote of confidence from Dombrowski. But whoever wins out, it should be a win-win situation for both the final backup catcher candidate and the Phillies as a whole.