After this long, annoying, ridiculous off-season we finally have a landing spot for baseballs best catcher.

Thursday afternoon the trade finally happened. Here are the players involved:

Marlins Get:

• Sixto Sanchez
• Jorge Alfaro
• Will Stewart
• $250,000 International bonus-pool money

Phillies Get:

• J.T. Realmuto

It’s crazy to think the Marlins only got what they did for Realmuto. Last season the Marlins were asking for top tier talent. No one budged and basically told the Marlins “fuck off talk to us when you actually have realistic offers” to which the Marlins response was “okay”. This off-season it seemed more of the same shit. At the beginning of the off-season the names getting thrown around were ridiculous. Noah Syndegaard, Jacob DeGrom, Ozzie Albies, Brandon Nimmo, and even Cody Bellinger. At one point the RAYS were even involved to some degree. It seemed like a mess since the beginning and it ended up becoming one. This to me seemed like a panic deal and only because I feel like teams might have shunned the Marlins after asking for Jesus himself for Realmuto and maybe took it as disrespect. All the names getting thrown around earlier in the off-season also could have been the Marlins throwing smoke to say “hey, we want this and that is the type of player we WILL get” to which they didn’t, obviously. Did Jeter get cold feet? Would be hard to get cold in Miami but who knows.

From the outside, it seems to be a little weak on the Marlins receiving end. The world was the expectation in the return of Realmuto, but this trade shows why the off-season in baseball is getting worse and worse every year. Everyone is scared to pull the trigger. No one is trigger happy besides ol’ Rick Pitino with his little pecker and the addict sitting on top of the throne in Seattle Jerry Dipoto. Everyone does not want to be the one to make the mistake and lose their job in the next year because the dude they picked up laid an egg and or shit the bed. Sports are all about risk. From drafting the player and having no idea what he will turn out to be up until he shows he’s either got it or not. Let’s talk about the players the Marlins are receiving.

Sixto Sanchez- The centerpiece of the deal. Sixto is a 20 year old Dominican right hander who’s fastball can touch 100. He’s been compared to Pedro Martinez due to his smaller stature. Major League Baseball has him ranked as the 27th best prospect in baseball while Baseball America has him 13th. The potential is there and has always been there as Sixto was signed at the age of 16 out of the DR and started pitching professionally since that young age. A former Thresher Great, as in the Phillies Singe-A team, Sixto finished the year with a 2.51 ERA, 1.071 WHIP, throwing 46.2 innings and striking out 45 compared to 11 walks. The man throws strikes. He can’t drink a beer legally yet, but he can pump the strike zone. He has a career WHIP of .994 which is what makes him so impressive. He’s thrown 95 innings once in his career professionally and other than that hasn’t thrown more than 67 in a season. Sixto has a chance to be the Marlins ace and has a chance to have one of baseballs coolest names.

Jorge Alfaro-  Alfaro is a strange player to me. He’s 25 years old and can hit the shit out of the ball. He has a good arm and his legs can move pretty quickly. He started 108 games for the Phillies last year with a triple slash of .262/.324/.407 with 10 home runs, 37 RBI’s, 16 doubles and two triples. The one knock on him is he strikes out, a lot. last season he had 138 strikeouts from his 344 at bats. He’s striking out in 40% of his at bats and is not exactly making up for it by being patient either. Alfaro only had 18 walks all season. Not something you want to see but you can tell he is more of a free swinger that can hit due to his decently high average compared to his little amount of walks. However, Alfaro will be Miami’s starting catcher this upcoming season and will have a chance to show off his power in Miami and hopefully walk a little more in a pitchers friendly park.

Will Stewart- The lesser known of the three, Stewart is no slouch. Last year throwing for the Phillies Single-A affiliate in Lakewood, Stewart had an ERA of 2.06, a WHIP of .977 throwing 113.2 with 90 strikeouts and only 21 walks. Stewart is a lefty sinker ball pitcher who made a huge jump from his earlier years in the minors ending his year last year with a 1.7 BB/9 from averaging 4.7 walks the previous three seasons. With Stewart being only 21 years old he still has time to develop and hopefully will start the season in Double-A so he can help out the Marlins sooner than later.

For the Phillies with Realmuto, they got a pretty nice catch for what they had to give up. Sixto is going to be good but the Phillies get a bonafide all-star catcher who is baseballs best catcher as of right now. Realmuto displayed his frustration last season when the Marlins cleaned house and the asking price was so high he had to stay put for the 2018 season. That didn’t do anything to his game as Realmuto showed why he was baseballs best catcher putting up a triple slash of .277/.340/.484 with 21 home runs, 74 RBI’s, 30 doubles and adding a Silver Slugger and All-star appearance to his resume. Along with his bat, Realmuto is a threat behind the dish too, ending the season with a fielding percentage of .992 and throwing out 38% would be base stealers while the average around the league as 28% just for comparison.

The Phillies got themselves a nice little piece to their puzzle they have been building since the regular season ended. With Realmuto in place, who knows if the Phillies are still interested in Bryce. With the negotiating rights with Realmuto, they can either sign him long term, or grab Bryce long term and try and win it now. Whatever they do, it seems them and the Mets will be taking over that second spot in the NL East with the Nationals in the fourth spot and the Marlins in the fifth. Number one spot (shout out Luda) goes without being said. Thank you and lets go Braves.