The Philadelphia Phillies recently suffered a significant setback when star shortstop Bo Bichette chose to sign with the New York Mets rather than Philadelphia. The Phillies appeared to have momentum in their pursuit of Bichette, but when that effort fell apart, the organization quickly shifted its focus to retaining one of its own players instead.
In response, the Phillies moved swiftly to lock up catcher J.T. Realmuto, agreeing to a three-year contract extension worth $45 million. At the time, the deal already raised some eyebrows due to its size and length. Now, only weeks later, the contract is drawing even more criticism and is beginning to look like a questionable decision.
Recent rankings from MLB Now’s “The Shredder” have only fueled those concerns. Realmuto failed to make the list of the top 10 catchers in Major League Baseball heading into the 2026 season. Even more troubling for the Phillies is the financial comparison: among the catchers ranked in the top 10, only one player earns as much or more annually than Realmuto, and that player is Cal Raleigh—widely considered the best catcher in the sport—who makes $17.5 million per year. Realmuto, meanwhile, earns $15 million annually, which is higher than the rest of the elite catchers at the position despite not being ranked among them.
The top-10 list includes Cal Raleigh, William Contreras, Will Smith, Drake Baldwin, Alejandro Kirk, Gabriel Moreno, Yainer Díaz, Sean Murphy, Iván Herrera, and Shea Langeliers. When placed alongside these names, Realmuto’s contract appears increasingly out of sync with his current production and league standing.
From a roster-construction standpoint, paying a catcher top-of-the-market money while he no longer ranks among the best at his position represents a poor use of resources. Realmuto has shown signs of decline both offensively and defensively, and while his leadership and pitch-calling abilities may still provide value behind the scenes, those intangibles do not justify a $15 million annual salary at this stage of his career.
Realmuto will be 35 years old at the start of the season, and although he may still deliver respectable performance in the short term, committing to him for three more years at such a high price is difficult to defend. The concern is compounded by the fact that this is not a brief stopgap deal; the contract keeps Realmuto under team control through his age-38 season, a risky proposition for a catcher given the physical demands of the position.
As the deal progresses, the Phillies could find themselves facing a familiar and uncomfortable situation—paying significant money to an aging player whose performance no longer matches his salary, similar to their current issues with contracts like those of Taijuan Walker and Nick Castellanos.
Ultimately, Realmuto’s absence from the top-10 catcher rankings while earning the second-highest average annual value among catchers underscores the criticism surrounding this extension. Rather than solidifying the Phillies’ future, the contract increasingly looks like an overpay that could hamper the team’s flexibility in the years to come.
