Manny Machado has already been moved from the Baltimore Orioles to the

Los Angeles Dodgers Cheslor Cuthbert Jersey , but the trade market hasn't yet lost its best position player.I'm looking at you, J.T. Realmuto.Although they're far out of the National League East race in the first year of their rebuild, the Miami Marlins aren't obligated to trade their All-Star catcher. Realmuto is only 27 and pulling in just a $2.9 million salary, and free agency won't beckon him until after 2020."Any deal, unless it's something that's in the best interest of the Miami Marlins and our long-term goals of bringing a championship to South Florida, we're not going to do anything rash, nothing emotional," Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said, per Matthew DeFranks of theSun-Sentinel."We know where we're at. We know where we want to go."Even Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, who needs to upgrade at catcher more than anyone, publicly declared his intimidation by Realmuto's price tag in June:MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM MLBNetworkRadioPump the brakes on a #Marlins #Nationals JT Realmuto trade.#OnePursuit President Mike Rizzo on quot;Power Alleyquot;: ZgOCs5KzSOAs high as Miami's demands may be, however, a trade could happen for one simple reason: He's worth it.For starters, consider Realmuto's Baseball Reference wins above replacementin relation to Machado in 2018:Realmuto:3.7 WAR in 74 GMachado:3.1 WAR in 101 GRealmuto has played in 27 fewer games, in part due to paternity leave and a bone bruise in his back that required a disabled-list stint. Yet, he's still been more valuable than Machado.The idea here isn't to start a Machado bash-fest. He's a four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glover who was pretty good even in a "down" year in 2017. And despite his less-than-great defensive ratings Brian Flynn Jersey , his elite bat has made him one of Major League Baseball's best shortstops this year.It's just that in this case, he's up against a guy who's become the best player at the most important position on the diamond.Mitchell Layton/Getty ImagesRealmuto's offensive performance had already been on a steady upward climb through his first four major league seasons. In 2018, his bat has officially become a weapon to the tune of a .304/.355/.529 slash line and 37 extra-base hits, including 13 home runs.Realmuto hit .290 with a .337 on-base percentage across 2016 and 2017, so what he's doing in those departments is nothing new. It's his slugging percentage that's changed the most, and not by accident.The best recipe for power hitting is to start by swinging at good pitches and then aim to get under the ball and hit it hard. Realmuto is handling the first part by swinging more aggressively within the strike zone. He's also handling the second part, as his average launch angle and exit velocity are up:Since Marlins Park doesn't do Realmuto any favors, his offensive excellence is captured best by his 146 OPS+. He's the only catcher with an OPS+ north of 140 this year, and the firstto cross the threshold since Buster Posey and Devin Mesoraco in 2014.It gets better, as elite hitting is just one of the services Realmuto provides.Another is running the bases, and the emphasis is on "run." His average sprint is 28.6 feet per second, which is the highest of any catcher.Yet another is controlling the running game. Realmuto has nabbed 41 percent of attempted stolen bases. At work, there is an average pop time (the time between when the catcher receives the ball and when his throw reaches an infielder) of 1.88 seconds. That, also, is the fastest of any catcher.For all his athletic gifts, Realmuto's defense wasn't without flaws earlier in his career. Per Baseball Prospectus' in-depth catching metrics http://www.royalsfanproshop.com/authentic-ryan-goins-jersey , he struggled with blocking and framing pitches in 2015 and 2016.Those flaws have all but evaporated in 2017 and thus far in 2018. Indeed, his framing might be better than ever. He's getting called strikes at career-best rates both inside the strike zone (87.1 percent) and outside the strike zone (8.5 percent).In all, Realmuto has become baseball's best catcher because he can do no wrong in any facet of the game. He's a far better hitter than anyone at the position, as well as the best baserunner and arguably the most well-rounded defender.Since creatures like this are exceedingly rare, it's not surprising there's no truly relevant precedent for what kind of package might be good enough to acquire Realmuto.The only thing to go off of is what's been reported. To this end, Jon Heyman of Fancred reported in January that a trade with the Nationals would have to start with Victor Robles, who presently rates asBaseball America's No. 6 overall prospect.This was before Realmuto's value skyrocketed, so it's fair to assume the Marlins won't budge unless somebody offers them multiple elite prospects. Otherwise, they'll hold on to their biggest prize.Still, never say never. All it takes is one enterprising GM with a treasure trove of prospects and a vision for his team with the best catcher in baseball behind the plate.And then, maybe just a phone call. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs, Baseball Savant and Baseball Prospectus. NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball hopes to gain control of local broadcasting agreements involving its teams, the reason behind its bid to purchase regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co.Disney acquired 22 RSNs as part of its $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment business this month, and the Justice Department said last June that Disney had to sell the networks as a condition of the deal.“There’s tremendous revenue disparity in our game, and I think that if we had more of a national model closer to where the NFL is it would solve a lot of those competitive issues for us Justin Grimm Jersey , kind of level the playing field.” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday.“I think that all of the difficult issues for baseball, if you took that revenue disparity out of the picture, would be easier.”The New York Yankees have a right of first refusal to buy back control of their YES Network and have arranged partners for their own deal. MLB wants to purchase the remaining networks.“Strategically, it would be a very interesting move for us,” Manfred said during a breakfast at The Paley Center for Media.“Our game has always had sort of a national broadcast component that’s come out of New York. But the bulk of our business has been local. And the idea of a central baseball having more control over local rights is one that’s really intriguing to us. If we do the transaction, we’ll do it on the theory that we will try to accumulate more.”Leagues and teams are worried over the cord-cutting trend and how to react with the emergence of over-the-top digital streaming.“You’re buying an ongoing RSN business, which generates really significant profits right now,” Manfred said. “I think everybody knows that it’s probably going to degrade over time as the cable model erodes.“I think for us, we’d be prepared to live with that, run out of profitability and at the end of that runout, assuming it comes to some sort of a hard end, we would be in control of the content, which we fundamentally believe in, and we think that holding it as a lead better positions us to figure out exactly what that next distribution model is going to look like for the benefit of the league, as opposed to having some kind of private equity firm owning the RSNs.”