In about a month, once the All-Star Break is over, or thereabouts, JT Realmuto will be healthy again. The Phillies front office will hev to make another difficult decision, much like when the team decided to send outfielder Johan Rojas to AAA to make room on the active roster for shortstop Trea Turner, who had missed six weeks with a hamstring injury.
The decision is clear. The Phillies need to keep Rafael Marchan on the active roster, and option Garrett Stubbs to the minors.
Marchan had a four-hit night in the Phillies’ 9-2 win over San Diego last night. This season, it took Stubbs 45 plate appearances to get his fifth hit of the season. And while he’s enjoyed a bit of an offensive resurgence – a personal four-game hit streak – it boosted his season average to just .191. He has exactly one extra base hit in his 75 plate appearances and his .473 OPS ranks 367th among the 383 players with at least that many plate appearances.
Marchan homered in his second start of the season Friday night against the Orioles. That’s the same amount of homers Stubbs has in his last 77 games.
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Yes, he’s the unofficial Chief Vibes Officer of the team. He keep spirits up. Nobody puts together a clubhouse playlist like Stubbsy. But you know what else boosts a team’s collective spirits? Hitting. Scoring. Winning baseball games.
Not only is Marchan showing far better offensive prowess over Stubbs, but he presence behind the plate is the preferred one for the best pitcher in the National League. In his career, over 26.1 innings, Ranger Suarez sports a 1.03 ERA when Marchan is catching him. With Stubbs, over 60.2 IP, his ERA is 5.34.
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Not only can he call a good game, but his defense is fairly close to what you get from the man widely called the best defensive catcher in the game.
You can trust Marchan to give you a capable effort when he is in the lineup. He could end up as Suarez’s regular catcher once Realmuto is healthy. At any rate, you feel much better about Marchan playing 1-2 games a week than you do if Stubbs is the choice.
