Realmuto shouldn't come up to be the backup. He needs to get 400+ PA next season and thats only going to happen in AAA. Send him there. Also important to note, he wasn't good in 12-13. He needs another year to prove this wasn't a fluke.

 

Salty is also basically tied for 19th in catcher WAR right now. Yea that is below average, but not embarrassing. You'd imagine he is somewhat better next year also a year into the league conversion.

 

If Realmuto is awesome, consider calling him up in the summer and shuffle whoever around the infield. That's about it for 2015 for him. Encouraging, but not there yet.

 

 

I was about to post something and then saw this post. Couldn't have stated this better myself.

 

Realmuto had a great first year in A ball, then two really bad years in the minors followed by a breakout year this year. Salty is under contract two more years, so basically we give him next year to show us if he's worthy keeping on for the full length of his contract. If Salty fails and Realmuto does well in AAA, Realmuto's the starting catcher by June/July and Salty's in the trade block before the deadline. If Salty returns to form, keep him for 2015 and let Realmuto continue to develop. Really in a no lose situation here and a real pleasure that Realmuto has grown back into a real prospect once again.

 

Lets also not discount Austin Barnes in this discussion, but he's more likely in talks for a utility/starting 2B spot next season than back at catcher.

 

 

I think Saltalamacchia has already "returned to form" to be honest. He has always been poor at getting on base outside of last year in Boston(and he wasnt even good at it last year) and his power #s arent all that different. He could be a little better or a little worse, but how he played this year is pretty much the player he is.

 

 

I don't see Salty as a .689 OPS player. He's not an .804 OPS guy like he was last year, but there's a happy median between .804 and .689. Return to form would be Salty going back to being his 2011/2012 self, which is a decent enough player to start everyday. He's not a bad player, but the park factors of switching from playing 81 games at Fenway to 81 at Marlins Park really played a big role in his numbers decrease this year.

 

Unimportant to the argument but interesting to me nonetheless, he has had 139 strikeouts exactly in each of the last three seasons. Unfortunately he's already done that in 63 less AB's than last year. Salty will never be a good contact hitter but striking out 38% of the time is unacceptable at any level. If he does that next year then I agree he's not worth starting anymore, but I see room for improvement.