Why J.T. Realmuto Feels Something to Prove With Phillies in 2026

The Phillies players most looking forward and hoping to bounce back in 2026 from at least one down year are Aaron Nola, Adolis Garcia and J.T. Realmuto.

Nola is coming off a 6.01 ERA. Garcia's OPS the last two seasons is 119 points lower than it was the prior two. And Realmuto's slugging percentage dropped for the fourth consecutive year, from .478 to .452 to .429 to a career-low .384 last year.

They're all crucial pieces to 2026.

The Phillies need Nola to help offset the early-season absence of Zack Wheeler and free-agent loss of Ranger Suarez. It's also only Year 3 of Nola's seven-year, $172 million contract, a deal they'll need a rebound season to feel good about.

They need Garcia to drive in 90-plus runs, not swing at everything and ideally seize the cleanup spot.

And they need Realmuto to be more of a six-hole hitter and less of the bottom-of-the-order bat he's been the last two years.

J.T.'s bat

Offense is far from the only aspect of his game, but if Realmuto was still hitting as he did in his prime, his market would have looked different from the start of free agency.

When the Phillies signed him to the five-year extension that expired after 2025, he was coming off a three-year run of hitting .274/.336/.489.

This time, he was coming off two of his lesser offensive years, .261/.318/.404.

Power outage

The power, specifically, has waned, which is understandable for a catcher with the league's largest workload entering his age-35 season. Realmuto, after all, has caught 1,183 more innings than any catcher in baseball since joining the Phillies. And that's despite playing only 99 games one of those years (2024) because of a knee injury.

"I'm pretty realistic with myself. My last two years, I haven't really been happy with," Realmuto told John Clark on this week's Takeoff podcast.

"I don't think I've played to my ability. But my body feels great. I still feel like I have a lot of good baseball left in me. So I want to go out and have a big year, be healthy and prove that there's still a lot of good baseball left. Just because you're a 35-year-old catcher doesn't mean you're done. I do take pride in that and want to have a good year for that."

The rest of the package

With his defense, game-calling, athleticism and leadership, Realmuto still provides value in other ways. That value was hard to quantify for the Phillies through much of the offseason, at least until they knew they weren't signing Bo Bichette. Once Bichette chose the Mets, the Phils quickly pivoted back to Realmuto, upped their offer to $45 million over three years and got a deal done.

Realmuto did not want to bend much from his asking price because of how he values himself and what he feels is the sport's most undervalued spot: catcher.

"I know how the game works. There's certain values on players. At the end of the day, I just value myself and what I do for the team different than the Phillies did for a while," Realmuto said after re-signing. "That's why it took longer than maybe it should have.

"I'm in a weird spot. It sucks, in my opinion, catchers are undervalued in this game as far as contracts and dollars go. I truly believe it's one of, if not the most important positions on the field. I just enjoy fighting for that. I believe in that value. I know the Phillies do as well, it's just the dollars looked different.

"Luckily, after the Phillies missed out on an opportunity there at the end (Bichette), they called back and were able to make something happen, improve their offer and get to something we were happy with."

Few players take the sort of annual beating Realmuto does. Foul balls off the foot, foul balls off the groin, foul balls off the fingers. He plays through most of it and that's appreciated immensely by his pitchers and coaching staff.

They didn't land Bichette, but they did retain Realmuto, a far better option than any other available catcher. If his bat can perk back up in 2026, maybe the lineup lengthens after all.