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The Phillies’ bigger question of the offseason has been resolved.
JT Realmuto is back.
The All-Star wide receiver, who became a free agent at the end of the 2020 season, has accepted a five-year contract with the Phillies, sources say. The deal is worth $ 115.5 million and carries an average annual value of $ 23.1 million, the highest on record for a receiver, exceeding the $ 23 million annual salary of former Minnesota Twin Joe Mauer. .
Realmuto will earn $ 20 million (including $ 10 million deferred) in 2021 and $ 23.875 million over the following four seasons.
Realmuto, who turns 30 on March 18, joined the Phillies in February 2019 in a trade with the Miami Marlins. He is widely regarded as the best all-round receiver in the game.
The deal between Realmuto and the Phillies ends nearly two years of recurring negotiations between the two sides.
The Phillies made an attempt to extend Realmuto’s contract soon after he was acquired and again in Spring 2020 practice, but both times proved short. Realmuto came to the Phillies two years less as a free agency and was only going to give up that right for a very rich deal. On several occasions in interviews over the past year, Realmuto has made it clear that he believes receivers wages lag behind other positional players in the game and he has dedicated himself to raise the bar for all catchers either in a huge reach or in the free agent market.
According to multiple sources, Realmuto was looking for a seven-year deal worth more than $ 200 million when talks between his side and the Phillies were halted due to the March pandemic.
When Major League Baseball lifted its moratorium on transactions and negotiations in late June, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak cast some gloom over the team’s chances of retaining Realmuto when he spoke of a In-game financial landscape “changed” due to a shortened 2020 season. and loss of income caused by the pandemic.
“We just have to let that play out,” Klentak said.
Still on the hunt for a record salary for a wide receiver, Realmuto became a free agent shortly after the World Series, but the market for his services has never been as robust as he and his advisers had anticipated. The New York Mets, a team with deep pockets and a need for a wide receiver, signed a cheaper option for James McCann and other teams who may have needed to cut spending or use their resources. limited to occupy other positions. One of those teams was the New York Yankees, who spent their free agent dollars to hold second baseman DJ LeMahieu rather than plunge them into a catcher’s need.
There were several other potential landing spots for Realmuto that never materialized, including Toronto, which used its free agent dollars on outfielder George Springer.
Eventually, the Realmuto market returned to Philadelphia. The Phillies, as Klentak said in June, let things unfold and reunited with their man. Alas, Klentak was not there to preside over the final stages of the negotiations and the agreement. He was fired after losing five seasons in October and replaced by veteran Dave Dombrowski in December. One of Dombrowski’s first moves was to visit Realmuto in person in the player’s home state of Oklahoma two days before Christmas.
“It’s obvious everyone in the Phillies organization values JT as a person and a player so highly,” Dombrowski said of the meeting.
Realmuto becomes the third player on the Phillies roster with a contract worth over $ 100 million, joining outfielder Bryce Harper, who is entering the third year of a 13-year, $ 330 million contract, and Zack Wheeler, which goes into the second. year of a five-year, $ 118 million deal.
The return of Realmuto will make the clubhouse happy. He’s one of the most respected players in the room, and all baseball, for that matter, for his calm, serious, head-down and hardworking approach to the game. Harper, known for his sizzle and flash, is the one of Realmuto’s biggest fans and he politicized loudly for the team to re-sign their favorite player.
“JT Realmuto has to be our wide receiver next year – period,” Harper said after the final game of the 2020 season.
The Phillies’ bigger question of the offseason has been resolved.
JT Realmuto is back.
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