The Philadelphia Phillies optioned reserve catcher Garrett Stubbs to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Thursday, clearing the way for Rafael Marchán to serve as J.T. Realmuto’s backup. The move was dictated in part by the logistical forces that often shape end-of-roster decisions.
Put simply: Stubbs had a minor-league option remaining, meaning that he could be sent down without being exposed to waivers. Marchán did not. The Phillies, clearly wanting to keep both in their organization, made what amounts to the logical decision.
“It is the business side,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Thursday, according to MLB.com. “It is part of it. Sometimes it works for you, and sometimes it works against you. Could [Stubbs] have done anything? I don’t really know what more he could have done. I think it would’ve been more reflective if Marchán had come here and just didn’t play well [or] we didn’t like what we saw at all. Then we would have said, ‘Well, if we lose him, we would have to fill the depth some other way.'”
Stubbs, 31, spent the past three years serving as Realmuto’s primary backup. Over that time, he hit .222/.305/.324 (77 OPS+) while developing into a fan and clubhouse favorite. Notably, it was Stubbs who popularized using a remix of Calum Scott’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” as the Phillies’ victory song during their 2022 run to the World Series. (The Phillies would lose in the Fall Classic to the Houston Astros.)
“Somebody’s gotta do it,” Stubbs told Billboard of his ascent to designated clubhouse DJ in 2024, “and I’d say because my role on the team as far as playing time goes is limited, I just became the guy who came into the locker room after the games to turn on the music. As guys started to like certain songs, I just started to accumulate the ones that everyone liked and put them into a playlist. And then slowly but surely, there ended up being 1, 2, 20, 50, 100 songs on the playlist.”
There’s no telling if Marchán, 26, will replace Stubbs’ intangible qualities. He could, however, represent an upgrade on the field. He’s hit .279/.333/.477 (120 OPS+) in 40 career big-league games.
Realmuto, for his part, is entering his final season under contract. Both sides have previously expressed an interest in working out an extension.
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