Jim Bowden of The Athletic is reporting that the Miami Marlins have agreed to trade catcher J.T. Realmuto to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for catcher Jorge Alfaro as well as pitching prospect Sixto Sánchez as well as – per Jeff Passan of ESPN– left-hander Will Stewart and an international bonus slot.
In Realmuto, the Phillies effectively win the rights to the most promising catcher in the game right now. The 27-year old comes with three more years of team control and looks to build off a year in which he set career highs in OPS (.825), home runs (21), RBI (74), oWAR (4.9), wRC+ (126), UBR (3.8), and caught-stealing percentage (38%) en route to his first All-Star appearance.
The trade ends a conversation that has been developing for nearly 15 months, dating all the way back to Realmuto’s trade request in December of 2017 following the Marlins’ decisions to trade stars Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna
His contributions will be valuable to the organization not only on an immediate level, but also in terms of the fate of free agent Bryce Harper – who remains entangled in a decision process that currently involves the Washington Nationals, Chicago White Sox, and San Francisco Giants, only one team of which has made the postseason over the last two years. Boosting credibility in an already-stacked National League East by acquiring Realmuto no doubt provides Philly with an advantage in the sweepstakes.
Sánchez and his 70-grade fastball project across most prospect lists to be the best in the Phillies organization, with MLB Pipeline ranking him 21st among the 100 best prospects in the league right now (sixth among right-handed pitchers). He enters his age-20 season with a 2.48 ERA and a minuscule rate of 1.7 BB/9 over his three years in the minors, reaching as far as High-A Clearwater last year, where he averaged 8.1 K/9 to go with a 1.071 WHIP.
Stewart, though unranked, put up an equally impressive 4.29 K/BB ratio in his first 100-inning season as a professional with Single-A Lakewood. Alfaro once ranked as the Phillies’ second-best prospect behind J.P. Crawford and second-best catching prospect behind Francisco Mejía heading into 2017 (according to Baseball Prospectus‘ separate rankings). He framed 12.3 runs above average behind the plate last year while hosing 27% of runners for his career, though his 36.6% K-rate was also the highest in the National League.
