Phillies Boss Reveals Teams Tried to Take Advantage of Their Catcher Situation

Teams around the league were trying to take advantage of the Philadelphia Phillies' new catcher situation, but their boss wasn't having it.

Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski answers questions from the media during the MLB GM Meetings at The Conrad Las Vegas. / Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies are currently the best team in the National League as they have dominated the majority of opponents on their schedule.

What's been impressive is that they were able to maintain their high level of play with Trea Turner on the shelf with a hamstring strain and Brandon Marsh's injury shuffling their outfield set up.

However, once it was announced their star catcher J.T. Realmuto would be out roughly a month after undergoing surgery on his knee, there was some concern about how the Phillies would handle this injury adversity because of how important the veteran is to their lineup and pitching staff behind the plate.

Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs will get the majority of work while newly promoted Rafael Marchan will likely be in the lineup to face left-handed pitchers.

How Philadelphia handles the loss of Realmuto will be interesting to see, and that's one of the reasons why teams around the league were calling president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski trying to offload their catchers onto him.

"Well, we've had three organizations, and multiple people from those organizations call us on veteran catchers. Call us. 'Hey, do you have interest in this guy?' Well, that's usually probably not a good sign, that they're trying to get rid of them. Rather than the opposite way where you're pursuing them," he told Matt Gelb of The Athletic.

It's hard to blame the other teams for trying.

They see an important piece go down with injury and they're going to see if they can take advantage of that situation.

Dombrowski is a veteran and knows how to deal with that stuff.

He also shared that's still too early for the Phillies, or really any team around the MLB, to start making trades ahead of the deadline.

"I think it's way, way, way, way, way too early. There's five or six clubs that identify themselves as sellers. But if they're selling now, they're either guys that are not real high on your list, or they're asking for so much." he added.

So, Stubbs and Marchan will be manning the position until Realmuto comes back.

Catcher doesn't sound like something Philadelphia will be targeting at the deadline, so it likely will be outfield help and relief arms like initially expected.