[Mr KLC]

Braves appear to be slight favorites for Realmuto

Dec. 15: The race for J.T. Realmuto may have a new leader, as Craig Mish of SiriusXM reports that the Braves appear to be slight favorites to land the Marlins backstop. Per Mish, third baseman Austin Riley -- Atlanta's No. 5 prospect (No. 43 overall, per MLB Pipeline) -- is on the table, though nothing is imminent.

Surprisingly, Mish notes that the Yankees are still in, even though general manager Brian Cashman once again gave Gary Sanchez a vote of confidence as New York's starting catcher during the Winter Meetings and said the club wasn't pursuing any primary backstops.

The Mets also remain in the mix, as do the Rays and Padres, though Mish deemed the latter two clubs "long shots." Meanwhile, the Reds have fallen behind.

Atlanta has one of the top farm systems in baseball, but it's unclear just how far the club is willing to go to get Realmuto when it already has veteran catchers Tyler Flowers and Brian McCann on the roster.

[Mr KLC]

The Mets’ addition of Ramos takes them out of the running for Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto, whom they had been aggressively pursuing this week, as Martino notes. They’re the second team to reportedly drop out of the Realmuto sweepstakes in the past couple days, joining the NL East rival Braves.



For the Mets, losing out on Realmuto means they’ll get to keep major league assets such as Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto and Amed Rosario, all of whom had piqued the Marlins’ interest in talks. At the same time, they won’t end up with arguably the majors’ best catcher. Still, while the 31-year-old Ramos’ isn’t the prize Realmuto would have been for New York, he should provide the team with a quality starter behind the plate.