Jim Morrison was a controversial singer for the band The Doors in the late 1960’s. Controversial because, well, you have Google and can probably look it up for yourself. Morrison wrote a song called “The End” which, if you’ve ever seen Apocalypse Now, you are more than familiar with. It’s a super long song that starts with these lyrics “This is the end/My only friend, the end”. It’s a great song, one that would take you back to the time and feel of music in the 1960’s and one of the better ones in The Doors’
catalogue of music.
Why do I bring this up in a season ending report card of J.T. Realmuto.
Because it’s time to face the music. We are nearing the end of Realmuto’s career and 2026 never made that fact more clear. Even after re-signing him, something I’d argue was necessary if too expensive, the team needs to have a contingency better than what they had the past two years.
What went right
If we’re looking for any positives to bring to light about Realmuto’s season, one could be that he looks to have staunched the bleeding he had with his defense. He had descended to being considered one of the worse framers in the game to getting himself back to at least being average. He was outstanding at challenging calls with the ABS system in place, his 81% overturned the highest among all starting catchers.
Did he make those challenges enough? No. Would it have mattered? Probably not much. He was very good at knowing when to make those challenges that would help his team in certain situations.
His arm strength is still a weapon, as is the pop time with which he can get rid of a baseball.
What went wrong
In 2026, there were 35 catchers in the game that logged at least 230 plate appearance as a catcher. Of those 35, only four had a worse wRC+ than Realmuto’s 68 wRC+.
If you wanted to zoom the lens out a little more, there were 336 hitters at any position that had a least 230 plate appearances on the season. Realmuto’s 68 wRC+ was tied for 310th with four others at that same total. Not only is it fair to say he was a bad hitter for being a catcher, it’s fair to say that he was one of the worst hitters in the game – period.
There have been some arguments that he ran into some bad batted ball luck. Can whoever makes that argument look at a lot of his under the hood numbers and say with a straight face that there was bad batted ball luck involved? I’m not sure anyone can. His spot in the lineup was a near black hole and there was just no way to get out of it.
Final grade: D
Realmuto just wasn’t that good last year, meaning he earns a grade that reflects that. This isn’t some kind of reflection on his career. He’s had a career that should put him in the Hall of Very Good.
Yet the team needs to make sure that he has help. Relying on Rafael Marchan, who isn’t a major leaguer in any real capacity, and Garrett Stubbs to be the backups for Realmuto was ignoring a part of the roster. Turning that blind eye may have cost them multiple games. The trust that Realmuto has earned from his pitching staff and coaching staff is going to outweigh any kind of lack of production he has at and behind the plate, but that trust should not come at the expense of winning baseball games. Too often, Realmuto should not have been in the lineup, but had to be because the other options weren’t of major league quality. It is imperative that the team take that spot behind Realmuto more seriously, possibly even if it financially doesn’t make much sense. Devoting a large chunk of the payroll to two catchers isn’t the smartest usage of money, but that money given to Realmuto looks sunk already. There needs to be competition for the starting job that pushes him either to perform better at the plate or to the bench more often than he is accustomed to.
The window is closing to win a championship. Even propping that open with a better catching duo is better than sitting on their hands and hoping Realmuto rebounds.
