Miami Marlins: J.T. Realmuto reportedly wants out of Miami

The Miami Marlins rebuilding process took an unexpected turn on Monday morning. Considered a building block, catcher J.T. Realmuto requested a trade.

The Miami Marlins were under the impression that they’d already moved all the major pieces of their roster this offseason. If they give in to demands from catcher J.T. Realmuto, they’ll have at least one more trade to make.

Craig Mish is reporting that the athletic Marlins catcher has requested a trade. The request comes after the organization sent Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees, and Marcell Ozuna to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The team is yet to respond to the trade request. If they’re inclined to grant him his request, it throws a wrench into their rebuilding blueprint this offseason.

Miami is in the painful early stages of rebuilding the organization from the ground up. “Unpopular decisions” abound, and it has led to an all-time low of morale on the active roster. It doesn’t come as a surprise that Realmuto would want to be traded, but it’s certainly an inconvenience.

The young, athletic catcher would garner huge amounts of interest on the open market. He is a rising star in the league, and the return for him would fetch a number of top prospects. The Miami Marlins may find that  opposing GM’s will be offering up low-ball offers, though.

Anytime a player requests a trade from an organization, it lessens his value. Other teams know the team wants to move him, and so will be willing to accept less in return. For a front office that has been highly criticized for it’s poor deal making, that’s an unappealing prospect.

The request could be a sign that the Miami Marlins are intent on trading Christian Yelich as well. Realmuto, seeing the writing on the wall, wants to jump ship before the Marlins lose 100 games.

The strategy is understandable, but he’s unlikely to get what he wants.

Realmuto won’t be going anywhere

Despite the fact that he would return a number of highly prized prospects, the team is unlikely to trade him. He holds more value to them as part of a future, winning club, than as a bargaining chip.

It’s important to note that the Miami Marlins are under no obligation to honor his request. The same goes for Christian Yelich. The future of these players is squarely in the hands of the Marlins front office.

Similar to Yelich, it’s hard to think of a team with the kind of resources to sway the Marlins into giving Realmuto up. Without any kind of financial constraint urging a move, the return would have to net several of baseballs top prospects.

The offer would need to be laughably good for the Marlins to consider it.

Worth noting is the lack of depth the Miami Marlins have behind the plate. It’s no coincidence that they just took two catchers in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. They don’t expect these catchers to become MLB stars, but they have very few options on the farm.

Franchise caliber catchers with years of team control don’t come around often. The Miami Marlins are keen to keep theirs in the fold.

Next: Miami Marlins not done with Stanton trade yet

Expect the organization to slow-play a response to his request. The hope being that it’s a knee-jerk reaction to the goings on over the last week.

If the team is indeed actively shopping Christian Yelich, which there has been no indication that is the case, the timing for such a request makes sense.