J.T. Realmuto is making the New York Mets regret not signing him in free agency big time.
The New York Mets could have signed Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto in free agency.
Instead, the best catcher in baseball decided to re-up with the Phillies rather than taking the Mets’ lucrative offer of $125 million. In their first head-to-head series of the season, Realmuto is putting a whooping on the Mets’ pitching staff. He crushed a three-run bomb on Wednesday afternoon, and it does not seem like he is slowing down at the plate under any circumstance.
Do you think the Mets regret not getting Realmuto to put pen to paper when they had the chance?
Realmuto hurts Mets again. 3-run HR makes it 7-1 Phils. Mets/Realmuto timing didn’t work this winter. Early in the winter Mets were willing to go to $125M or so but Realmuto wasn’t ready to sign yet (or perhaps he preferred Philly?)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 7, 2021
Best
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 7, 2021
Catcher
In
Baseball#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/qtZFuBpycs
https://twitter.com/FanSided/status/1379927792196841473
J.T. Realmuto is a noted New York Mets killer and there is no doubt about it
Even though the Phillies have the longest active postseason drought in the National League, they have come out of the gate guns a-blazing. Philadelphia swept the division rival Atlanta Braves over the weekend and entered play on Wednesday afternoon with a strong 4-1 record to begin the year. They are certainly taking care of business vs. NL East competition in the early days of April.
While much was made about how great of an offseason the Mets had, maybe it is the Phillies who will be the one team in the NL East that did not make the postseason a year ago who gets in this October? Keep in mind the NL East only sent two teams into October with an expanded field a season ago: Division-winning Atlanta and the on-the-rise Miami Marlins under Don Mattingly.
As long as Realmuto continues to rake like this vs. New York, the Mets will have major regrets.