The Phillies are moving on from Garrett Stubbs.
According to Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia has informed the catcher that he’s being designated for assignment. Once the move is officially announced, the club will have five days to work out a trade or place him on waivers.
That decision brings an end to Stubbs’ five-year run with the organization. The Phillies brought the lefty-hitting backstop over from the Astros in a minor trade during the 2021-22 offseason, and he spent the next three seasons as J.T.
Realmuto’s backup. More recently, though, Stubbs had slid to third on the catching depth chart, with Rafael Marchán taking over the reserve role.
Philadelphia already tested the market for Stubbs once before. Because he was out of options, the Phillies ran him through waivers at the end of Spring Training after coming up empty in trade talks.
He then returned to the roster in mid-April when Realmuto went on the injured list. Once Realmuto came back, the Phillies kept three catchers and used Stubbs as the final bat on the bench.
He missed about a week and a half in July with left wrist inflammation, but otherwise stayed on the active roster for the season’s final five months.
Stubbs appeared in 35 games and made 17 starts behind the plate, plus one in left field. In 65 plate appearances, he hit .153 without a home run. Over his Phillies tenure, he leaves with a .212/.292/.300 line in 181 games.
The most likely next step is that Stubbs clears outright waivers and elects minor league free agency.
Philadelphia’s catching picture was rough across the board this season. Marchán is also out of options and still hasn’t shown he can hit big league pitching.
Realmuto, meanwhile, led all catchers with 122 starts and ranked second only to William Contreras with 1058 2/3 innings behind the plate. For a 35-year-old coming off a career-worst season, that’s a lot to ask.
As a group, Realmuto, Marchán and Stubbs combined to hit just .183/.254/.285, the worst offensive production by any catching group in the majors this year.
The Phillies are stuck riding things out with Realmuto, who is under contract for two more seasons at $15MM per year. But they still need to find a better depth answer behind him.
At his end-of-season press conference, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the goal was to cut down Realmuto’s workload, and that becomes a lot more realistic if the club can find a dependable 1b option. Potential free-agent fits include Carson Kelly, James McCann or Gary Sánchez.
Freddy Fermin, Luis Campusano, Jimmy Crooks, or Danny Jansen could also fit that role.
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