2024 season preview: The Phillies could have the best catcher group in baseball

The Phillies need more clutch hitting and fewer double plays from J.T. Realmuto in 2024

When trying to find the best-case scenario for the Phillies at the catcher position, all you need to do is go back to the 2022 season when they arguably had the best tandem in the league. J.T. Realmuto was still regarded by most pundits as the best catcher in baseball, and Garrett Stubbs was viewed as a solid backup.

That was not the case in 2023. Realmuto wasn’t awful, but his performance was off on both offense and defense, and the “BCIB” title was largely awarded to Adley Rutchsman. The lingering memory of his season was his inability to hit with runners on base, and it felt like any time he came to the plate with a runner on first, a ground ball double play was imminent. It seems likely that the decline is due to his age (he’ll be entering his age 33 season) and a plethora of innings played over the past few seasons.

It wouldn’t be Spring Training if we didn’t have stories about players who have supposedly identified the cause for a disappointing season and have taken steps to remedy it. But Realmuto believes he is line for an improved year at the plate.

We’ll see if that work pays off or if we’ll be grumbling when it’s mid-May and he’s leading the league in double plays.

As for his defense, it was expected that the new rules would neutralize his ability to throw out potential base stealers, but his poor performance in framing pitches was a surprise.

That large of a drop-off seems somewhat fluky, so unless he’s just showing a drastic age-related decline on defense, it seems reasonable to expect some positive regression in that area.

One way to help Realmuto regain his form might be to give him additional time off, or at least occasionally play him at designated hitter or first base. But manager Rob Thomson have seemed inclined to give him much of a break, partly because there’s a huge drop off between him and his backups.

We all know that Garrett Stubbs is a plus in the clubhouse, and somebody has to serve as the DJ and postseason celebration leader.

But it would be nice if he could avoid being a zero with the bat. Major league backup catchers aren’t generally known for their hitting prowess, but his .557 OPS in 2023 didn’t provide reason to increase his playing time.

In 2022, we saw that Stubbs is capable of more. He had a .350 on-base percentage with five home runs and was worth 1.1 wins above replacement in just 46 games.

The Phillies may have another option if Stubbs can’t hit. Rafael Marchan cameoed with the major league team in 2020 and 2021, He didn’t see any major league action the past two seasons, but after returning from a hamate injury early in 2023, he put up on OPS of .831 at AAA, and hit well in the Winter League.

He was granted another option year for 2024, but this will be his final one, so the team will take a long look at him in camp. If those offensive numbers can translate to the major leagues, it’s not impossible that he could supplant Stubbs as the primary backup going forward.

It might be naive to expect a 33-year-old catcher to reverse the aging trend, and it might be wishful thinking to expect either Stubbs or Marchan to be a solid backup. But if they could do it in 2022, it’s not out of the question that the Phillies are once again the National League’s strongest team at catcher.