Miami Marlins: The bitter irony of the J.T. Realmuto trade demand

J.T. Realmuto wanted off of the Miami Marlins to get in the playoffs, but guess who made the playoffs?

Among the many lessons delivered by the COVID-shortened 2019 season, one ancient one would be easy to overlook…unless you’re J.T. Realmuto.

Be careful what you wish for.

The Phillies All Star catcher will be thinking about that maxim a lot this week.

It was back in the 2017-18 off-season that Realmuto, ranked among the game’s best catchers, first demanded a trade from the Miami Marlins.

Miami had only recently shipped away its stellar outfield – Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, and Marcell Ozuna – to Milwaukee, New York, and Atlanta respectively. Realmuto, the team’s best remaining player, saw a club in perennial transition and asked to be traded to a contender.

It took a year’s worth of negotiating but in February of 2019 the Marlins granted Realmuto’s request. They shipped him to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he would soon team up with free agent signee Bryce Harper in what was seen as a potential post-season powerhouse.

Now, as MLB prepares for an expanded 2020 post-season, Realmuto’s Phillies sit on the outside of the playoff structure, where they have existed annually since 2011. That will give Realmuto plenty of time to watch his old team,  the Marlins, cavort against the Chicago Cubs in the first playoff round.

Be careful what you wish for, J.T.

Realmuto’s Phils went 28-32 in 2020, three games worse than his old club, the Marlins, and one game out of his desired playoff berth. In the season-closing three-game series with Tampa Bay, Realmuto was 2-for-11. He batted seven  times with runners on base — five in scoring position — and got one hit. That runner was thrown out at home.

His double play grounder in the seventh inning of Saturday’s 4-3 loss was ranked game’s second most consequential play based on Win Probability.

Possibly even more galling, the Marlins made the playoffs with players obtained in precisely the deals Realmuto saw as gutting his team, or for Realmuto himself. Those acquisitions included pitcher Sixto Sanchez, who the Marlins acquired for Realmuto. Sanchez went 3-2 this year with a 3.46 ERA in seven starts. Assuming the Marlins and Cubs play a Game 3 in their first round series, Sanchez will be on the mound for Miami.

The Game One starter is likely to be Sandy Alcantara, acquired in the Marcell Ozuna deal with St. Louis. Daniel Castano, Mangerius Sierra, Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison and Jorge Guzman may also see playoff action. Each and every one of them came to Miami in one of the deals that motivated Realmuto’s trade demand.

Jorge Alfaro a catcher acquired with Sanchez in the Realmuto deal, will probably be behind the plate Wednesday at Wrigley.

The collective irony is almost too obvious: By demanding a trade to a playoff contender, Realmuto made the Miami Marlins into … a playoff contender.

We’ll never know the degree to which COVID manipulated the fates of the player and his former team. Under the playoff system in place prior to 2020, the Marlins may or may not have finished in a deadlock with Cincinnati and/or St. Louis for the second wild card berth. That would have hinged on the outcomes of a pair of unplayed games between the Cardinals and Tigers.

It’s also unknown, obviously, how the standings might have been affected by the shortened 60-game season as opposed to a full 162-game season.

But while we can’t know what might have happened, we do know what did happen. What did happen is that J.T. Realmuto demanded his own exit from a playoff opportunity and onto a non-playoff roster. Irony is an unforgiving mistress.