J. T. Realmuto

Jacob Tyler Realmuto ( /riːlˈmuːtoʊ/ reel-MOO-toh; born March 18, 1991) is an American professional baseball catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Florida Marlins selected Realmuto in the third round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft. He made his MLB debut in 2014 with the Miami Marlins. In 2018, Realmuto was an All-Star and won the Silver Slugger Award at catcher. The Marlins traded him to the Phillies in February 2019.\n', ' Realmuto was born in Del City, Oklahoma, and grew up there and in Midwest City, Oklahoma. His parents Margaret and David are both blue-collar workers. His father played college baseball at Southwest Missouri State University. His uncle John Smith is Oklahoma State’s wrestling coach, a six-time wrestling world champion, and a two-time Olympic wrestling gold medalist. Three of his other uncles were NCAA wrestling champions.\n', ' Realmuto attended Carl Albert High School in Midwest City, Oklahoma, where he was a three-sport standout in baseball (becoming a starter as a freshman), football, and basketball. He played shortstop for the baseball team, quarterback (as well as tight end and safety) for the football team, and power forward for the basketball team. In his senior year in 2010, he set a national high school record with 119 runs batted in (RBIs) in 148 at bats in 42 games played for the baseball team; his batting average was .595 and he had 78 runs scored, 28 home runs, and 22 doubles. He was named the National Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association, was named to its All-American team, and was named to the Louisville Slugger All-American team. He also won state championships in baseball and football. Academically, he had a 4.2 weighted grade point average and scored 32 on the ACT. He received the Bob Colon Scholarship, presented by The Oklahoman and the Jim Thorpe Association to the top male high school scholar-athlete in the Oklahoma City area. He committed to attend Oklahoma State University on a scholarship to play college baseball for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.\n', '