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Nobody has Thrown Out More Runners than J.T. Realmuto Since he Became a Phillie
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As you know, J.T. Realmuto is the best catcher in baseball. Older, but still the BCIB. He threw out Shohei Ohtani in the 8th inning Friday night then gunned down Chris Taylor to end it, handing the Dodgers their first loss of the season.
Since joining the Phillies in 2019, nobody has thrown out more runners than Realmuto.
Here’s the Sportradar data going back seven seasons now:
The raw numbers are good, but the percentages are what really matter. J.T. is throwing out runners at of rate of 31.7% since coming over in the Miami trade. Among active catchers, only Salvador Perez and James McCann have higher career caught stealing rates, per Baseball Reference.
What’s more is that his performance really shines when you go one step below the surface-level stats. Baseball Savant, for instance, has Realmuto logged with a 40 “CS Above Average” number, which is a measure of extra caught stealings compared to the “expectation of an average catcher.” The next highest player in this stat is at 19, so J.T. is doubling him. His average arm strength of 83.6 mph is the fifth-highest over this same time period and he he’s clocked with an exchange time of .064 seconds, which is how long it takes him to get the ball out of his glove and fling it. That’s tied for 5th-fastest in MLB.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com