JT Realmuto: I'm Tired Of The Atlanta Braves Winning Our Division | WIP Midday Show

welcome back midday show Hugh Douglas Joe jilo live from Clearwater at Phillies spring training and joining us right now Phillies catcher JT real Muto JT how you doing man doing good doing good uh just grinding through the dog days of spring training ready to get the season started you know it's funny JT speaking of that because I'm I'm fascinated going to your 11 season what do you what do you do to help keep your body as fresh and how has your workout regimen changed as you gotten older uh a lot actually honestly um I've actually started working out um more often as I've gotten older just with less exercises in there so um when I was younger I would always I always loved working out it was something that I enjoy doing but I would kind of wait for my off days and then get like a nice like an hour long big lift in like really work hard uh on my off days and then not really work out at all during the days I played now I've kind of learned um to feel better throughout the whole season and just to be more consistent with my workouts I just do it every single day right after the game I'll I'll go in and do three exercises it's a lot shorter but it's a lot more manageable and it's easier for me to stay routine and and I found that that just keeps my body fresh throughout the season so by the way happy belated birthday right last week days ago yeah 33 don't remind me all right we'll we'll leave the number out come on man 33 is not old dog that's not old in baseball years I'm a dinosaur and as a catcher usually that would so do you think about that I mean we talk about it all the time you catch a lot I mean you caught 130 last 2 years seems like you want to do that again most catchers they get to your age I w't say the number again that either wains or they they don't play as well anymore do you think about it like does that creep in or do you just do your thing and you don't worry about hey I'm I'm getting older now yeah I I don't worry too much about it just cuz my body still feels good and to be honest with um the last couple years my body has felt better in August and September than it was when I was 27 28 just cuz I'm learning myself and learning new routines and learning how to be more efficient and stay fresh for the whole season obviously Father Time's coming for all of us so it's going to slow down eventually but I haven't felt that yet so I don't think about it too much I just keep going keep trying to keep my body in the best position that it can be to to be productive throughout the whole season and that's kind of all I really focus on right now you know that number that you said that we can't say uh how long do you think like in your mind in the way that you feel right now how many more good quality years do you think that you have left uh um honestly I wouldn't put a number on it just because right now I feel like I'm my body's still in Peak condition that it's ever been I feel as good as I've ever felt uh realistically like I I want to play as long as I can and but I want to play as long as I can while still being productive so once my production starts dipping I'm not going to be a guy who's like I still got to play 140 games like I want to uh like it's not ego driven I just want to be there to help the team and and when I'm the best option behind the plate I want to catch as many games as I can to give my my team a chance to win and my goal is to do that as long as I can but I don't necessarily have a number for it I know you don't want to put a number on it so I'm G help you out a little bit I'll put a number on it so I'm feeling like just by talking to you and listening to what you're saying five years do you feel comfortable if I said five more years on your career does that sound something like that's doable for you that's absolutely doable yeah for sure okay so 40 is no thing for you then like to your 40 well to that number that you know that that that 40 number yeah that yeah that mystical number yeah I I can get there I I believe I can uh doesn't mean I will but I'm going to put I'm going to do everything I can to to um be in the best position to to play well and you know when I'm 40 years old we're with JT real mut here Philly spring CH so JT tell us about the biomechanics lab we saw a story a couple weeks ago that you you kind of went into the lab this offseason and they try to help you maybe change your swing or tweak some things what was that like is people hear that they think like what is he doing like what did you change or what you try to change your swing this offseason yeah the the biomechanic where it always gets people alarmed and makes it seem like it's a lot more than what it was um basically essentially we got in there um what it does is give you numbers and and outputs that you can't NE you can feel in your swing but you can't necessarily see so like what was happening over time I I had gotten to some swing flaws where my weight was getting a little too far back in my load um so that would cause my leg lift to go a little higher just cuz I was so far back I had to have more time to get to Center and that would just cause my timing to be late a lot so what what we did was we got on the force plates and it showed me where all my pressure was coming from where the power output was and that was able to I was able to make adjustments off of that just to get a little more centered in my load the swing's still the same I'm a little wider which it's almost the exact same swing I had in 2018 so it's not necessarily anything crazy new it's just kind of getting back to where I was when I felt my best and I was a little more centered a little more grounded and able to use the forces of the ground more often I'm I'm kind of curious about that cuz how how how many repetitions does it take for you to get comfortable with the kind of new mechanics that you have with your swing it was a lot yeah um I I mean I I started swinging almost two weeks after the season so it was the fastest I've ever gotten into the to the cages in an off season just because I knew I wanted to make some adjustments I didn't feel good about my my swing last year um so I I don't know the number of swings but it was 3 to four days AEK week every week um early in the offseason and as the offseason progressed it was it was even more you know you said something about like starting earlier in the season was that kind of driven by what happened at the end of last season you know since we're using a lot of innuendos is is is that kind of one of the reasons why you got started a little bit early because you know the way the the season ended kind of left the sour taste in your mouth uh certainly and for me it was it was honestly my whole season like I actually felt better in the postseason than I did in the regular season so like mine was driven just by how I felt I didn't feel like I was near as consistent as I could have been in the regular season because I had had some swing flaws that were very fixable but also yes the taste of the postseason how things ended um just gave me a little more drive to be like hey we got to figure this out we can't let this happen again let's let's make ourselves the best we can for next year so speaking of that I mean expectations are gigantic I mean you you I you I know you guys can't wait to get home people are so excited for this team for opening day next week do you guys talk about it like you know I was talking to H earlier about his teams with the Eagles you know back in the day like they got close right and then I I always ask him like did you guys talk about winning the Super Bowl when you got close like in Spring training I know we all know what the goal is do you guys talk about winning the World Series or is it more of a day-by-day let's just do our work and it's kind of unspoken what is it like for you guys when we we all know what your goal is no yeah it's definitely not unspoken we talk about it all the time um I can just I mean there's multiple guys in the clubhouse who just this Spring train been like man I can't wait to win the World Series like we'll talk about what it's going to be like when we win like we're trying to put that Vision in everybody's mind that like we are going to win the World Series um we had the vision last year it obviously didn't happen for us but if we stay together if we stay healthy if we keep that mindset uh everybody in this Clubhouse truly believes we will win a World Series and and that's the ultimate goal so it's not some some spooky monster in the corner that we don't want to talk about it's like it's we talk about it every day it's our goal it's what we put in our minds and it's it's what we want to achieve let's talk about the first goal though that I'm sure is making the playoffs and winning the division so the last two years you guys have gone great runs without winning the division is winning the division a goal for you guys obviously you haven't needed to right you've gone through the Braves in the playoffs but how about winning the division is that something you guys think about talk about focus on because it's been this weird thing where the division winners like Atlanta they've gotten knocked out early you guys as a wild card have gotten further some people like well they don't even need to win the division I want you guys to win the division is that a big goal of course I'm tired of seeing the Braves win the division yeah we we all are too every year we're we're 10 games back not even with a chance so that's absolutely our first goal is to win the division and kind of Dethrone those guys because they've had such a good run at and they've been such a good team in the regular season and we feel like we're every bit as good as them there's no reason we shouldn't be able to compete with them and beat them for the division we just have to um first of all get off to a better start and then just be more consistent throughout the season we're clearly you can see it when we get in the postseason we have all the talent in the world we have the team that can win every single game of the regular season you're obviously never going to do that but we just have to change our mindset in the regular season and be a little more consistent over the 162 um and be that team that we are in the postseason for the whole year speaking of that has there been conversation about getting off to a quicker start uh yeah I mean gez I can't go a date without the media asking me about it so I'm talking about with the team it is a conversation for sure and um like I said if we want a chance to win the division we have to start better we've gotten off the Bad starts two years in a row and then obviously picked it up in the second half but there's no reason we shouldn't be that team in the first half um the first couple months we just have to get a better start get a little momentum on our side and then we'll have a lot better chance of of competing with the Braves for the division but what about that but see this is the thing that that I was telling Joe about being the division win and I know that's a great goal to have but that five days off that's kind of hurt the Braves in in in my opinion what how do you feel about that having that rest period before the uh Series starts in my opinion rest is I mean it's never a bad thing in baseball I think you get healthy um obviously you go a few days without it bats but we there's ways you can combat that by by scrimmaging facing your own arms stuff like that uh I would rather have the five days off and go straight to that Division Series then have to play a wild card series and take a chance to get knocked out um so yes our goal is to win the division we'd rather have that those five days off than not JT obviously a lot of your work is what you do with the plate but a lot what you do behind the plate as a catcher who stood out to you give us a couple names pictures that just youve felt it like their stuff is popping this spring training uh gosh it's it's hard to not say wheeler just because his stuff is always popping and he always looks really good um I've been really encouraged by by Ranger this this spring training he's looked um I me his stuff has been he's always had really good stuff but he's had really good command this spring kind of the two year ago Ranger command that we saw that he was just putting the ball right where he wants to that's kind of how he's been this spring training he's been exciting to watch um Alvarado look good I think sir Anthony's kind of taking a step forward again and his his slider looks like it's a little better than it was last year which I thought um that was his biggest issue was was the slider command and being able to get guys off of his fastball a little bit and I've been encouraged to see the work he's done this offseason you know JT I just got a a a little bit of piece of information found out you were a three- sport athlete so if you weren't playing baseball would you rather be a NFL quarterback or a champion Olympic wrestler probably an NFL quarterback cuz they make way more money than wrest no but dude you wa like baseball players make way more money not the yeah the quarterbacks do make a lot of money uh I would definitely say quarterback I love um baseball was always my love like the sport I love the most growing up but I I've never had more fun than Friday Night Lights playing football I mean just looking back to this day those were some of the most fun times they ever had was the adrenaline rush that you get before football game is it's just not it doesn't compare to anything so what kind of quarterback was JT R dual threat Runner or or more using pocket pass no I was kind of more dual threat like I was very raw as a quarterback I didn't even start playing quarterback till my sophomore year so I was more of an athlete than a quarterback so I ran a lot but I could throw it as well it was just it was kind of more it was more dual threat than anything I definitely wasn't like a true pocket passer what was your team growing up I didn't necessarily have an NFL team because I grew up in Oklahoma and we didn't have one and I didn't want to root for the Cowboys just because everybody else did in Oklahoma seemed like you were destined for Philadelphia your whole life exactly so like all my friends rooted for Dallas Cowboys but I never did I was more of a college football fan I was a big Oklahoma State Cowboys fan okay um that's where all my family kind of went to school so I grew up going to their games and rooting for them a lot all right JT let's end with this we do appreciate JT Ruto with us here at spring training we we always love the audio we played it we played it forever the 13 more topper right when you guys made the playoffs in 2022 did where did that come from that was that just like just off the cuff like because that that really kind of set the stage for that postseason and what You' guys last two Octobers that that was the moment I felt that this city is like man they're back the philes what what was that like when you gave that little speech there with topper 13 more uh yeah it was a pretty special moment I honestly they just kind of naturally happened after the after we clinched in Tampa I walked up to him like in during the celebration I was like hey we got 13 more wins let's do this you know that it was just like a small conversation I wasn't thinking anything of it and he said hey I'm going to ask you in the in the um Celebration Speech how many more wins we got and you let let the team know and and so it just happened then and then after every single series he didn't even mention again he just kept asking kept asking and so just kind of became this thing um and yeah it was pretty cool I I enjoy being a part of that yeah the countdown is awesome JT we appreciate you hopping on good luck this season and uh we're all rooting for you and we're expecting big things to thank you JT thanks guys apprciate bills