How the Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto is trying to defy the unforgiving aging curve at catcher

Realmuto, who is entering his age-33 season, has caught 957 more innings than any catcher since 2017. How can he keep it up? He thinks he has a plan that will work.

Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto has started an average of 123 games in the past seven full regular seasons, including 130 in each of the last two years.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published Feb. 16, 2024, 12:15 p.m. ET

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Quick, think of all those things you did when you were young that you can’t do anymore.

Staying out all night? Check.

Eating a bunch of sweets? Yep.

“When I was younger,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said the other day, “I’d lift pretty heavy [weights] on my off-day.”

Sure. That, too.

To be fair, Realmuto is still a young man — he will turn 33 on March 10 — and those iron-pumping workouts were part of his training program until just a few years ago. As an elite professional athlete, his body works differently than yours, and certainly mine.

But by baseball standards, he’s entering middle age. And for a catcher, well, he’s getting up there. Last season, 100 catchers played at least one inning of a major league game; 15 were in their age-33 season or older, and of those, only the Astros’ Martín Maldonado caught more than 100 games.

Realmuto made 130 starts behind the plate in each of the last two regular seasons before logging 17 and 13 starts in the playoffs. He averaged 123 starts in the last seven full seasons. Since 2017, he has played 957 more innings — or nearly 106 more games, not including postseasons or the World Baseball Classic — than any other catcher.

It’s a massive workload at any age, but nearly unprecedented in recent years for catchers in their mid-30s. Since 2010, here’s the list of backstops who started 130 or more games at age 33 or older:

Yadier Molina: 2016, 2017 (ages 33-34)

“I knew it wouldn’t be a lot, but the fact that it’s only been one, that’s pretty crazy,” Realmuto said. “It’s something that I hope to do, and I hope to do it for years to come.”

Wager against Realmuto at your peril. Rival executives and managers speak of his athleticism and toughness with the reverence they once reserved for Molina. As Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski says, with only affection, “J.T.’s a real freak.”

But will Realmuto be able to defy a typically unforgiving aging curve at the sport’s most grueling position?

Not even the Phillies can say for sure.

“Great question,” Dombrowski said, “because you’re almost going on uncharted territory. We talk about ideally we’d like to give him more days off just to help preserve him. But you see him now. He’s in just as good a shape as ever.”

Said manager Rob Thomson, a former minor-league catcher: “We’ll see. He’s in great shape. We’ll see how he handles it.”

Realmuto thinks he has a plan that will work.

Training days

Growing up in Oklahoma, Realmuto was a multisport athlete. In high school, he played shortstop for a title-winning baseball team, quarterbacked the football team to a state championship, and was a power forward in basketball.

But his roots are in wrestling. His uncle, John Smith, was a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Realmuto inherited a passion for weight training that persisted after he got drafted by the Marlins in 2010.

Realmuto said he strives to put on “as much muscle mass as I can” each winter. Early in his career, he tried to maintain that strength during the season by lifting on days when he didn’t play.

With age, he has made concessions.

“I was really good at getting ready and feeling good coming into camp, but by August, I would be worn out and exhausted,” he said. “I’ve kind of changed that routine as I’ve gotten older.”

Realmuto credits strength and conditioning director Morgan Gregory, hired by the Phillies after the 2021 season, for introducing him to a new way of training. Rather than heavy lifting twice a week, Gregory suggested working out every day but less intensely.

For the last two seasons, Realmuto went to the weight room after each game and completed three exercises for a total of 15 to 20 minutes. The exercises varied each day based on a program designed by Gregory and assistant strength coach Furey Leva.

“It’s allowed me to maintain strength through the season as opposed to wearing myself out and being sore the next day,” Realmuto said. “I’m never really sore or tired because I’m just doing something small every day. In August and September the last two years I felt better than at the end of the season when I was 27 or 28.”

But Realmuto is also coming off one of his worst seasons at the plate. He batted .252/.310/.452 for his lowest OPS (.762) since 2015, his rookie year with the Marlins. He struck out 138 times, a career high, and grounded into 10 double plays.

Maybe it was simply a down year. It happens. And Dombrowski said Realmuto “reworked his swing” in the offseason, an indication that he and hitting coach Kevin Long identified causes of the downturn.

But whenever a star catcher’s offense slips, a debate usually follows about the benefit of additional rest. For what it’s worth, after Thomson gave him a day off last season, Realmuto batted .307 (35-for-114) with six doubles, seven homers, and a .561 slugging percentage.

Coincidence?

“I don’t know,” Realmuto said after hearing the numbers. “I don’t necessarily feel any different after [a day off]. Maybe if in my whole career I’ve been a lot better after that one day, then I wouldn’t say it’s a coincidence. But I don’t know if there’s enough of a sample.”

Besides, Realmuto’s value goes beyond going 0-for-4 or 4-for-4. He’s a leader on the field. Most pitchers swear by his game-calling. As Thomson said, “It’s tough to take him out of the lineup.”

The Cardinals always said the same about Molina.

In the footsteps of Yadi

Even before Realmuto went 3-for-8 with a homer in the Phillies’ two-game wild-card series sweep of the Marlins last year, Miami manager Skip Schumaker had a high opinion of him.

“I think J.T.’s the best catcher in the game,” he said Thursday.

Schumaker used to reserve that title for Molina. Like most of Molina’s former teammates with the Cardinals, Schumaker was awed by his durability and longevity. Molina, who caught in a full squat as opposed to the less-taxing, knee-down stance used by Realmuto and many contemporary catchers, averaged 122 starts behind the plate during a 15-year period from ages 22 to 36.

“Yadi did everything he could to make sure he posted,” Schumaker said. “He felt he was the best option every single day no matter how he felt. Just his presence in the lineup, his presence behind the plate, the relationships with the pitchers and the coaches, it was a 10 out of 10 for Yadi.

“I’m guessing that’s what J.T. feels like. They just feel like they owe it to their team. The way they keep their body healthy in the weight room, eating right, the whole deal, it goes a long way.”

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak admits that he wondered for years if Molina would be able to maintain the volume of playing time. Internally, team officials discussed whether he would benefit from additional rest. It became an annual offseason topic, according to Mozeliak.

But Molina always insisted he could handle the workload. And most free-agent backup catchers steered clear of St. Louis because they knew they’d scarcely play, a predicament the Phillies would face if they sought to upgrade from Garrett Stubbs.

“We took a harder look at it probably for a decade, honestly,” Mozeliak said. “Every year, we would try to talk Yadi out of playing [130-plus games]. We would say, ‘We’re going to sign this backup to give you a little break,’ and every year, he’d be like, ‘I’m good. I got this. You pay me to play. I’m playing.’

“He believed he was performing at a high level, regardless of whether he played 100 games or 130 games. That mindset is who he became. I don’t know J.T. personally, but I’ve watched and admired him. He strikes me as someone that’s going to approach it just that way.”

Only since he made his major-league debut in 2014.

At an age when most catchers face the choice of moving to a less demanding position or retiring prematurely, Realmuto takes pride in being the standard-bearing ironman.

“It’s just who I am as a person,” he said. “I want to be productive and help a team as long as I can, and that’s going to be behind the plate. I can probably move to first base and be fine over there, but I’m not a first baseman. I’m a catcher. As long as my body’s going to let me, I want to catch as many games as I can.”