Realmuto’s Real Value is Showing

Yes, J.T. Realmuto received a larger and longer contract than he probably should have gotten. No argument there. The Phillies — and by the Phillies, I mean Dave Dombrowski — were bidding against themselves and lost the bidding war. The fact that the Phillies needed J.T. Realmuto back though is already showing.

I get it. He’s hitting .143 this spring and his offensive skills have dropped; I’m not debating that, nor am I putting that into the equation of why they needed him back. It showed on Saturday in some barely noticeable ways unless you were really tuned into the game and what was going on.

In the top of the first, Painter came out and threw four straight four-seam fastballs — a pitch that Painter thrives on — and missed with all four to walk Myles Straw. The velocity was good, but the command wasn’t there even though establishing that pitch is key to Painter, which is why Realmuto kept calling for it, hoping to get it zeroed in. On a pair of curveballs, Painter got Jesus Sanchez to fly out to fairly deep right-center field for the first out. Again, the velocity was right, but Painter missed his spot, not by as much as with the fastballs, but the pitch was up higher than Realmuto wanted it.

Realmuto then called for a throw to first and caught Straw leaning for the second out of the inning. Painter put a sweeper to Eloy Jimenez in the dirt, missed with another fastball, and then got Jimenez to groundout on a 97 mph fastball, busting him in with the pitch.

In all, seven of Painter’s first 11 fastballs were out of the zone and a couple others weren’t where Realmuto wanted them, but they were either put into play weakly, fouled off, or swung on and missed.

In the second inning, Realmuto continued to mix up Painter’s pitches, but was sure to keep going back to the fastball in an effort to both get Painter dialed in and to show hitters that they were still going to throw it. The one hit that Painter allowed in his three innings came on a fastball to Nathan Lukes that was up-and-in, but Lukes floated it over short for a base hit.

“His control and command were off a little bit in the first inning, but I thought the second inning was better than the first, and the third inning was better than the second,” Rob Thomson noted. “The encouraging thing to me is that it didn’t spiral on him. J.T. did a nice job mixing pitches, and when he missed with his fastball, they’d change to another pitch and got him back in the zone.”

Thomson touched on what the problem was last season. When Painter didn’t have his best stuff, as he clearly didn’t on Saturday, he couldn’t find a way out of it by using other pitches. And, the catchers didn’t work him through a progression of his pitches fast enough to avoid letting him fall behind hitters and having to throw a strike. In his two outings, Painter has run just two three-ball counts, both in Saturday’s game against Toronto. When he fell behind Straw 3-0 he ended up walking him, and the single he allowed by Lukes came on a 3-1 pitch. So far in his young career, Painter has not shown himself to be a strong three-ball count pitcher.

Saturday’s outing may have been an important experience for Painter in that he didn’t have his good stuff, but realized that in Realmuto, the Phillies have a catcher that pitchers can rely on to help get them through those outings.

Another Value of JT

Yesterday at PBN Extra Innings I examined what type of hitters will benefit from the ABS Challenge System and gave examples of former Phillies and even a former Phillies team that would have benefitted from ABS. We also looked at current Phillies who could benefit and it’s all in The Sunday Seven: Hitters and the ABS Challenge System. (Yes, it is only for paid subscribers, but remember that our paid subscription is only $5 per month or $45 per year and comes with a 7-Day Free Trial. Please consider subscribing.)

What I did not look at were the catchers who will become ABS Masters. Guys — like Realmuto — who will not only know which pitches to challenge because of their knowledge of the strike zone, but will understand the situation and whether it is the right time to challenge a call.

When Jesus Luzardo made his first outing of the spring against Boston last week, his first inning would have looked a lot different without Realmuto. Braiden Ward reached on a bunt single to start the game. Luzardo then struck out Nick Sogard swinging and brought Matt Thaiss to the plate. A 1-2 sweeper to Thaiss was called a ball, but Realmuto challenged the call and it was overturned for the second out of the inning and the second strikeout for Luzardo. Connor Wong took a called ball four, but Realmuto again challenged the call, which came on a 3-2 pitch, and again, the call by home plate umpire Felix Neon was overturned to give Luzardo three strikeouts in the inning.

Realmuto has always shown a good command of the strike zone whether as a hitter or when he is behind the plate. That’s going to serve the Phillies and their pitchers a lot of pitches this season and likely turn some walks into strikeouts.