Change is coming to Philadelphia (we hope). If the NLCS, and to a lesser extent the ALCS, has taught us anything, it’s that the Phillies need to make things different for next year’s roster if they want to have a chance at competing for a World Series. There is a gap that currently exists between them and teams like the Dodgers or Brewers, so to close that gap, things need to be different.
What we’re going to do is look at all the positions the team has and try to come up with ways that perhaps a tweak
or two could be made in the hopes that things can be better in 2027. Maybe some changes are drastic, maybe some are incremental.
Let’s start behind the plate.
Who they have
We all know that behind the plate, they have hitched their wagon to J.T. Realmuto. For better or worse, they have decided that the best path forward is to give a soon-to-be 36 year old catcher two more years guaranteed to at least be a major part of the plan. The wisdom of a such a move, likely done as a panic to losing out on the Bo Bichette sweepstakes, now looks even worse considering Realmuto just posted the worst offensive season of his career. What compounds the problem is that the team had no real other option as the backup to help take away some of the plate appearances Realmuto was using. Believing that either Garrett Stubbs or Rafael Marchan would be some kind of viable option to help give the team good production behind the plate is akin to believing that a human would be able to survive on Neptune.
Their farm system is even more barren. Their best catching prospect, Alirio Ferrebus, spent the bulk of the season in Clearwater, admittedly having a good season, but still showing that he is light years away from making an impact. Their other options that would loosely have the “prospect” tag given to them have not convinced anyone that there is a threat to Realmuto’s hold coming from within.
To give the tl/dr version, the Phillies catching situation both in the present and future is bleak.
Free agent options
To say that the free agent market for catchers is rough would be being kind. The best starter is going to be Ryan Jeffers and it’s not particularly close. He just spent this past season in Minnesota putting up a 128 wRC+ in nearly 400 plate appearances and is only going to be 30 years old, so teams that are in need of a solid starting option are going to be calling his agent.
The Phillies do not need, or apparently, want a starter. Committing to Realmuto for $15M AAV means they still want him to carry the bulk of the playing time, something their pitching staff also wants to see as well. Scouring the market for a backup makes things a little more tolerable to handle as there are a few options that might fit the bill. The key is going to be two things: a) is that catcher solid defensively, which is what they mostly value from their catching, and b) can he be a starter in case Realmuto succumbs to another injury? Those two things could lead to a couple of options.
Jake Rogers – Well if Stubbs or Marchan is your guy, then Jake Rogers might be for you! Given that Rogers had an OPS that started with a 5, his market would likely be something around nil or barely above. He was one four, yes four, teams this year, getting DFA’ed like there was no tomorrow. Is he great behind the plate? He’s not great, but he’s not going to hurt any team with his defense. For likely a minor league deal or, at most, league minimum, there are worse options.
Jonah Heim – A pretty astounding fall from grace here, Heim was once a catcher running a 107 wRC+ and giving his team really good defense. Now, he’s coming off a season in which he had a 62 wRC+ and has a significant amount of blue on his Baseball Savant page for both offense and defense. Bringing Heim aboard would be a roll of the dice that somehow, the team could recapture some bit of glory with him. Another one that likely wouldn’t cost more than a minor league deal with a spring invite, it would be a pretty large roll of the dice, but could also serve as depth that they aren’t exactly overflowing with.
Carson Kelly – Now we’re getting to actual options here. Having a wRC+ over 100 (103) as a catcher is going to look good on anyone’s resume. Kelly ended 2026 with 10 home runs and 58 RBI, all while entering a timeshare with Miguel Amaya at the end of the season. That means he’s already accustomed to the role. Obviously, the ideal would be a timeshare where the catcher complement each other on the batter’s box, one hitting right handed, the other left. Bringing Kelly in would not create that ideal as both he and Realmuto are right handed, but beggars, choosers, etc. He’s still decent behind the plate and would be an instant upgrade over both options the Phillies were using as part of a rotation in 2026. He might be a bit more of a financial expenditure than they’d like, but there needs to be an upgrade. Kelly would represent that.
Tyler Stephenson – The dream free agent target. Stephenson is the best free agent catcher behind Jeffers, meaning bringing him in would be the team turning the job over to him and relegating Realmuto to being a very expensive backup. That’s not really how the team would probably want to spend their money, but again, this is a position that is seeing a significant dropoff in production and needs to be something more than a lost at bat each team the spot comes up in the lineup. Stephenson would command less than what Jeffers would offer, so there’s at least that. He’s great at blocking baseballs in the dirt; just don’t ask about all the other things a catcher is supposed to do. Again, bringing Stephenson in is akin to pie in the sky hopes, but we can all have them, right?
Trade options
The trade market is probably as bad as the free agent market. Teams are very aware of the lack of truly capable catchers that would deserve major league playing time, so the market for them could be higher than what a team like the Phillies would want to pay. Instead of trading for a starter though, the Phillies are likely looking for a backup that doesn’t embarrass himself if a longer term need arises.
Hunter Goodman – This would obviously be the dream player to get for the Phillies if they were serious about upgrading the catching position. He hits for power, he plays an alright defense and isn’t all that expensive. Team control? You betcha. He’s also going to command at the minimum the Phillies’ top 2-3 prospect plus others. Is a catcher moving away from Coors Field what they’d want to spend their prospect capital on?
Mickey Gasper – The first thing to know about Gaspar is he’s hurt. He tore up his biceps muscle enough that he needed surgery, so he’ll be out a while. Maybe a team doesn’t want to part with prospects when the recovery from such a procedure would take time. Maybe the team isn’t really that impressed with him, not truly believing in his end of year power surge (10 HR in 225 PA) and thinking it’s a mirage. That would be the game the team is playing with a trade for him. Is he healthy? Is the power real? For the right price, the answers might be worth finding out.
Pedro Pages/Jimmy Crooks – The Cardinals are littered with catching prospects. They have Leo Bernal now, Rainel Rodriguez soon and these two are good. That means they have Pages and Crooks just sitting there, waiting to be poached. Giving one or the other the chance to work with Realmuto and grow into perhaps the heir apparent would be worth giving up a little more than just a wild card or relief prospect.
Predicted outcome
There are a litany of other options the Phillies could look into. They could probably also just bring back one of Stubbs or Marchan on a cheaper contract instead of the projected $1 million they are each to get. The guess is here is that Stubbs is brought back on a minor league deal to help in Lehigh Valley to get Gage Wood or any other prospect ready for the major leagues like they did with Andrew Painter while also addressing the backup spot through free agency. Carson Kelly only got 2 years and $11 million his last go ‘round on the market and if he were to take that same deal, the Phillies should probably be on that.
