Miami Marlins JT Realmuto wants no part of the Derek Jeter rebuild.
The star catcher’s agent, Jeff Barry, who appeared on Sirius XM’s MLB Radio on Tuesday, that Realmuto will not be signing a contract extension with the Marlins.
While Realmuto is under team control until the 2020 season thanks to two more years of arbitration, the 27-year-old is giving the Marlins plenty of time to mull over any sort of possible trade options in the future.
Miami is in the throes of a complete rebuild after trading away Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich and Marcel Ozuna last season shortly after Jeter took over the club. While Realmuto wanted out, he wasn’t so lucky.
Still, putting Realmuto on the market now would only accelerate the Marlins’ rebuild further. He is one of the game’s best catchers and entering the prime of his career thanks to a 2018 All-Star campaign in which he hit 21 home runs, drove in 74 runs and batted .277.
The longer the Marlins wait, the more they risk the chance of seeing their possible return dwindle should he be struck with injuries or struggles.
Among the number of teams that will be expected to inquire about Realmuto could be the New York Mets, who are one of many teams in desperate need of a No. 1 catcher.
Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki, both hampered by injuries in 2018, lack both the offensive and defensive skill set needed to succeed on a contending team. Through six seasons and a multitude of chances to prove that he can be the franchise’s backstop, d’Arnaud sported just a .245 average while throwing out just 21-percent of potential base stealers. In four years, Plawecki is batting .218 and has a caught-stealing rate of 23-percent.
By comparison, Realmuto has a .279 career batting average and has thrown out 33-percent of potential base stealers.
The Mets already inquired about Realmuto earlier in 2018 when d’Arnaud tore his UCL and Plawecki suffered a hand injury. Instead, they went on trade Matt Harvey to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Devin Mesoraco.
Why would the Mets push for JT Realmuto now?
A new regime has now taken control in Queens after the Mets introduced new general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, a former agent that represented the likes of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes.
While there will are plenty of questions of how he’ll transition from CAA to an MLB front office, Van Wagenen stressed in his introductory press conference on Tuesday that the Mets are poised to compete immediately.
“We will start with our major-league roster where we already have some of the best talents in the league…. We will infuse new talent… We will be creative… We will win now, we will win in the future. We are going to develop a winning culture, winning mindset. We will deliver this city and this fanbase a team they can be proud of.”
Filling one of the organization’s largest voids with an All-Star catcher would be a massive step in the right direction to further impress the Wilpon family.
It also just so happens that Van Wagenen was Realmuto’s agent prior to accepting the Mets general manager role, which could give New York an upper hand should the catcher have any say on where his next home will be.
