Philadelphia Phillies Boss Hints at Team Moving On From Fan Favorite This Offseason

The Philadelphia Phillies could move on from one of their fan favorite players this offseason.

Jul 21, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs (21) and right fielder Nick Castellanos (right) celebrate after defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. The Phillies won 6-0 / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

When free agency gets underway and the offseason officially begins, there are a lot of questions the Philadelphia Phillies will have to answer regarding how they plan on competing for a World Series championship in 2025 and beyond.

Unless they get creative, there is a chance a good amount of the roster from this past year's team will be back based on the contract situations the majority of their players have.

The Phillies have already discussed some potential changes that could be coming next season, mainly their fifth rotation spot featuring superstar prospect Andrew Painter at some point, but they also acknowledged they will have to use J.T. Realmuto in the catcher spot less.

For that to happen, though, Philadelphia needs a reliable backup they can put in who won't be a huge drop off from what Realmuto provides.

Their internal options are former top prospect Rafael Marchan and fan favorite personality Garrett Stubbs, and based on comments made by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, it sounds like they could be moving on from the latter.

"We like Marchan a lot. We think he's a real good catcher. He's shown some offensive prowess also ... He's had a lot of injuries, but when he's played, he's played very well. So I think we have some people capable of doing that internally," the future Hall of Fame executive said per Matt Gelb of The Athletic.

That sure sounds like they are thinking about giving the 25-year-old a shot to take over the predominant backup role and play more often when Realmuto is out.

Marchan has a career slash line of .279/.33/.477 and an OPS+ of 120 across his 40 career Major League games, but the 17 contests he appeared in this past season was the first time he's played in The Show since 2021.

Like Dombrowski stated, that's largely been because of injuries.

He was placed on the 60-day injured list in 2022 because of a hamstring injury and then once again in 2023 after fracturing the hamate bone in his right hand.

The Phillies aren't necessarily ruling out the possibility of bringing Stubbs back to be their reserve catcher, but with his .207/.296/.262 slash line and OPS+ of 59 during his extended playing time this year, the team can't afford that type of production when giving Realmuto more time off.

Because of that, and the injury history Marchan has, Dombrowski is looking at all options when it comes to this position.

"But I can't tell you that they'll be for sure given the job. We just have to keep an open mind as we explore that this wintertime," he added.

Perhaps they turn to an outside option in free agency.

Either way, Stubbs's time in Philadelphia could be coming to and end this offseason.