Phillies sign J.T. Realmuto, signal possible pause in spending

Suddenly, in a matter of hours, the Philadelphia Phillies have come into focus for the next three years. With the signing of J.T. Realmuto, the team is no longer a potential last-place club for the foreseeable future, but rather a possible contender.

Realmuto’s deal takes the Phillies projected salary total for the season into the neighborhood of $171 million, but more importantly puts a core group of players on the field for at least three years that should make the team one to be reckoned with for the purposes of discussion – just as all the other teams in their division are.

Phillies deal with J.T. Realmuto may mean they’re set for 2021

As Matt Breen notes for Inquirer.com, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Bryce Harper and Realmuto are now reasonably expected to wear red pinstripes for three years at minimum. All are in the prime years of their careers for that period. Add to that group 2020 Rookie of the Year finalist Alec Bohm, who won’t be eligible for arbitration until 2024.

The Phillies are no longer a club with one too many holes on their starting eight and starting pitchers list.

For the club, possibly the best aspect of the Realmuto signing beyond simply putting him on the roster for five years is his contracted figure for next season, $20 million, rather than the average of $23.1 million for the deal. Deferred payments give the Phillies another $3 million to use in painting over other team scuffs and dings.

Yes, the back end of the Phillies rotation is iffy and the bullpen is still questionable as well, despite some on-paper improvements, but suddenly the team is pretty damned good – also on paper.

Interestingly, it also now appears that Phillies president Dave Dombrowski will be very careful with the remaining budget he theoretically has to play with before hitting a competitive balance tax penalty. (For all anyone knows, in fact, Dombrowski and manager Joe Girardi may have been told, “Guys, now you have to win with what you’ve been given.”)

Dombrowski trotted out all the “predictables” in the wake of Realmuto’s signing – the Phillies have “just too many good players” not to be trying to win now, and so forth.

But the heart of the question about what happens next was revealed by this declaration:

“I think, ideally, we’d like to add some depth somewhere.”

His next sentence included the term “non-roster invitees” in relation to pitching and the following sentence included “young arms.”

The second sentence following that involved some curious time-travel phrasing about those young arms. The two statements about young pitchers in the organization read,

“I’m not sure how close they are to contributing right now. Maybe they could grow up over the last year and step up [emphasis mine].”

Hmm. Assuming there’s no editing problem here, that’s a good trick, right? Especially without any actual minor league competition. (It’s also fairly funny – if intended as such.)

It looks as though signing Didi Gregorius is now doubtful. But then, three weeks ago, Realmuto looked lost too.