Phillies Could See Willson Contreras as ‘Best Plan B’ if JT Realmuto Signs Elsewhere

The central theory of this post isn’t new, but Saturday’s developments have brought it to the forefront. Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia wrote all the back on January 1, which honestly feels like two months ago at this point, that the Phillies could view Willson Contreras as “the best Plan B” should JT Realmuto opt to sign elsewhere.

That matches up with Patrick Mooney’s assertion that the Cubs could market Contreras to teams that miss out on Realmuto, which is a far cry from the report that they were “extensively shopping“ Contreras. It’s also predicated on the idea that the Phillies won’t be able to retain their star catcher. The Mets signing James McCann removes one potential destination and new Phillies president Dave Dombrowski hasn’t historically shied from spending, so a reunion with Realmuto feels pretty secure.

Then there’s the idea that Jed Hoyer called the Contreras rumors “fictional” during a recent press conference, though Tom Ricketts previously said he “[doesn’t] think anybody is tearing anything down.” The fact of the matter is that taking any of these public statements at face value would be a mistake, as would putting a ton of stock in every little bit of speculation coming from these outlets.

Contreras himself certainly appears to be tracking that speculation pretty closely, and he’s not happy about it.

https://twitter.com/WContreras40/status/1347973175896895488?s=20

In the end, this is all about treating each new bit of information as another piece in a puzzle that you need to view in total to get the picture.