If Alex Anthopoulos wants to get him, then signing Realmuto isn’t going to be the difficult part of this equation… it’s moving the other chess pieces around the board that his presence would cause… and the lack of payroll flexibility that would result.
- You really can’t keep Travis d’Arnaud with Realmuto on the roster. Both are starting catchers and with Realmuto’s durability, a cheaper backup backstop makes more sense.
- That was mentioned as a ‘plus’ above, but you also need to make such a deal happen, and that’s not necessarily easy to do when everybody knows you need to do it.
- If you’re in the camp that believes “long term contracts are almost always bad”, then you’d be rooting for d’Arnaud to stick around since he’s got just 1 year left on his current deal.
- Then there’s still the left-field issue — the “true” need. Never mind more bullpen and bench help.
Does it make sense to go for a player who wants a record-breaking contract? You’re already paying Freddie Freeman $22 million this year and he should get around $25 million for the next 4-5 years in an extension.
Adding Realmuto at a similar price level would then tie up $50 million each season for just 2 players over the next five years… and you might want to consider keeping at least a pitcher or two from the current stable. All of that puts the Braves up to a payroll level that they’ve seldom seen before (pretty much only in 2020, in fact).
Should the Atlanta Braves go “maxed out” for Realmuto?
Now sure: 2 years ago, Josh Donaldson was signed for $23 million. Last year it was Marcell Ozuna and Cole Hamels, both at $18 million. All the while, Mark Melancon was making $14 million. So yes… there is payroll room, but again: do you want to commit that much to 2 guys for that period of time?
Further, let’s list some players around the $25 million AAV level today:
- Jacob deGrom ($27.5m for 2017-2020)
- Mookie Betts ($27m in 2020)
- Paul Goldschmidt ($26m through 2024)
- Jon Lester ($25.8m from 2015-2020)
- Bryce Harper ($25.4m through 2031)
- Felix Hernandez ($25m from 2013-19)
- Stephen Strasburg ($25m from 2017-23)
- Jake Arrieta ($25m from 2018-2020)
- George Springer ($25m just signed through 2026)
- Zack Wheeler ($23.6m from 2020-24)
- Patrick Corbin ($23.3 from 2019-24)
- Joe Mauer (catcher record $23m from 2011-18)
Some of these contracts have worked out well… others not. But does Realmuto truly belong in this group? More to the point, is there any player in this year’s free-agent class (other than Springer) who belongs in this group… and by extension would lead you to the World Series?
If your answer is “yes” — then offer Realmuto the money and let’s head to Florida for Spring Training. If “no”, then get the best deal you can find on a left fielder and we’ll kick this can down the road.
The question here is actually not so much about whether Realmuto is an elite ballplayer, but whether he’s so much of an upgrade that the Atlanta Braves should spend twice the amount (and more) that they are giving to d’Arnaud for that same position.
All of that introduces risk — a very strong risk at this stage of the off-season in a world where the team already knows it’s likely to have to absorb another large financial loss this year.
So Atlanta: it’s a good opportunity, but perhaps not a “great” one. It’s definitely going to require some serious chutzpah to execute.
It almost feels like Alex Anthopoulos is staring down the barrel of Clint Eastwood’s gun and being asked “Do you feel lucky?”