With an old-school tactic that aligns with his approach, J.T. Realmuto is turning back the clock on hitting

PHILADELPHIA — J.T. Realmuto dropped his bat and immediately hunched over after Marlins reliever Ronny Henriquez threw a slider that didn’t slide. The pitch ran way inside and tracked right toward the catcher’s hands. But luckily for Realmuto, the ball made contact with only the black knob on the bottom of his Old Hickory maple, resulting in a foul ball. He avoided potential injury, and the Phillies may have his grip to thank.

Realmuto remains one of what appears to be a select group of major-league hitters who still choke up on the bat each time at the plate. In an effort to get better control of the barrel, the veteran slides his hands up a few inches on the handle. This technique, once commonplace for contact-oriented batters, had Philadelphia hitting coach Kevin Long breathing “a sigh of relief” after that pitch to Realmuto last Thursday.

“Well, I can tell you that I’m kind of glad that he does it,” Long said the next day. “Because if he was like some of the guys that have their fingers over the knob, he probably was looking at some damage to his fingers.”

For Realmuto, it’s just the way he’s held the bat, at least some of the time, throughout his career. But over the past handful of seasons, the right-handed hitter has choked up for each pitch.

“I’ve always done it,” Realmuto said. “I usually used to only do it with two strikes, and I’ve done it more recently, just because I’ve had trouble getting pitches moving into me. I’ve gotten beat on them quite often by not getting the barrel there, just kind of getting on my hands a little bit. Shortening my swing and shortening the barrel, just trying to trust that the barrel is going to get there and not have to do too much.”

Long said that Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh and other Phillies hitters will occasionally experiment with choking up. Some players do it only with two strikes. It’s all a matter of preference. Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball’s all-time leader in home runs, choked up on his bat during his playing days. Johnny Damon, a former All-Star outfielder who played for the Yankees when Long was the hitting coach in New York, was on the opposite end of the spectrum, bringing his hands down and wrapping his bottom two fingers around the knob of his bat. Each batter has his own way of wielding the lumber.

But over the years, choking up has become rarer and rarer, Long noted. There’s less of an emphasis on simply putting the ball in play. Slap hitters used to choke up on the bat and try to poke at a pitch. That type of player is less prevalent as batters try to punish mistakes instead of only making contact.

“I think today, guys feel like the bigger the lever, the more chance at damage,” Long said. “Back in the day, it was more: put the ball in play, that sort of approach.”

Another possible explanation: Bats in 2025 can be specifically designed for each hitter, so there’s not as much of a need for certain adjustments. Even 20 years ago, Long said, players didn’t have as many options in terms of equipment. “We had, like, six models that you could choose from,” he remarked. In the past, a batter might have wanted to choke up on a bat that felt a little too long or a little too heavy. Now, a major-league hitter can have a bat perfectly fit for his swing.

Realmuto, however, finds it more comfortable to keep choking up. He has some pop, but he’s not swinging for the fences. Holding the bat the way he does aligns with his approach.

“I’ve never been a power-first hitter,” Realmuto said. “So for me, it’s important to find the barrel and try to hit line drives. When I try to hit home runs or try to get the longest leverage, it doesn’t work for me. Just what’s worked for me in the past is shortening up, taking approaches like that as well. I’m just trying to get the barrel to the ball and let good things happen.”

The catcher had a down regular season offensively for his standards in the final stretch of a five-year deal with the Phillies. Realmuto batted .257 with 12 home runs in 134 games, and his .700 OPS ranked 17th among all big-league backstops with at least 400 plate appearances.

But with a hot July and a solid August, Realmuto showed that he can still provide some productive streaks before struggling in September. Maybe he can use the Phillies’ first-round bye to rest up and bounce back in time for the National League Division Series when it begins on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia’s lineup looks a whole lot deeper when he’s at his best and putting balls into the gaps.

If Realmuto does provide a spark with his bat in October, just know that he’ll be using that same old-school grip while he’s swinging it.