On Tuesday, catcher J.T. Realmuto agreed to terms with the Philadelphia Phillies on . In doing so, he's made some special history for the position. Realmuto's average annual value of $23.1 million is the highest in baseball history for a catcher contract.Realmuto, who turns 30 in March, is also the third catcher to:Sign a contract worth at least nine figures ( and )Earn an average annual value north Jordan Nwora Jersey of $20 million (Mauer, again, and ).The rarity of the blockbuster catcher contract is tied to the belief that such deals are hazardous; alongside pitchers, catchers appear to take slices off the cakes that form their careers with each pitch. , but teams have been choosy about which catchers they reward. That behavior within itself merits investigation; if Realmuto is deemed worthy, and he has been, then he belongs to a special cla s.How have the other members of his ilk aged; how have their lucrative deals turned out; and what does it all mean for Realmuto? Below, we've attempted to answer those questions by recapping the seven multi-year contracts handed out to backstops that had AAV of $15 million or more, . (We accept that $15 million is an arbitrary number, but it's a charming one, isn't it?)For reasons largely outside of Mauer's control, his contract serves as the worst-case Khris Middleton Jersey scenario in this particular arena. Mauer was, of course, forced to first base by repeated head trauma. He still posted a 114 OPS+ for the deal, but that mark wasn't as remarkable at the cold corner as it would've been behind the dish. Baseball Prospectus' Wins Above Replacement Player calculation (used in this article because it incorporates catcher framing) suggests he notched about 13 wins in that period -- or one for every $14 million. That's over the general baseline ($10 million) and the worst on this list, however, it's much better than the perception of the deal suggests. This is the first of two appearances for Molina; predictably, since it came later in his career, this is the le s valuable of the pair. Molina's bat was in clear decline over the last three years, and he averaged a 93 OPS+ in fewer than 100 games per pop. His defense still allowed him to ama s 5.5 WARP, putting him around $11 million per win. Depending on how you value the soft defensive factors that Molina gets credited with -- game-calling, defensive positioning, etc. -- that might be underselling him.If you want to get technical about it, Posey's "true" AAV is lower after he opted out of last season for family reasons. He had a rough 2019, but it doesn't matter. For the deal, he's hitting .298/.367/.441 (122 OPS+) while averaging nearly 140 games per season. He's been worth 38 WARP during that span, meaning the have paid le s than $4 million per win. It doesn't matter what happens in 2021; that's a ma sive, ma sive victory for the Giants, and about as good as it gets here.As with Posey's contract, Grandal's remains in progre s. The difference is that Grandal's is D.J. Augustin Jersey closer to the head end than the tail. Year one went well enough: he hit for a 113 OPS+ and remained one of the best receivers in the league. Provided he can do that again, or twice more, the will have no regrets about this one. McCann originally signed a five-year pact with the , though he spent the final two years of that with the following the emergence of . He wasn't as productive at the plate as he had been earlier in his career, but he was a league-average hitter (or thereabout) with strong framing numbers. That combination allowed him to notch 13 wins, or about $6.5 million per. Strong.As with McCann, Martin also finished out his contract (signed with the Blue Jays) with a different team ( ). He too was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Jersey unable to sustain his past glory, yet he did have a 96 OPS+ for the life of the deal. Martin's high-grade framing enabled him to also rack up 13 WARP, good for a ratio around $6.3 million. Stronger.Obviously Molina's first entry (chronologically) worked out well enough for the to come back for seconds. He hit for a 104 OPS+ over the five years while averaging 133 games played. Factor in stellar defense, and he accumulated 19 WARP. That's le s than $4 million per win, making this deal an absolute bargain. To recap: of the six deals that have either finished or are entering their last season, two of them had a dollars-per-WARP rate exceeding the $10 million threshold. Four of them, meanwhile, were well beneath the mark. It's po sible that WARP overstates catcher framing, but if you accept that it's mostly accurate -- or, at least, that it's a step in the right direction -- then you also have to accept that most of the large catcher contracts handed out over the past decade have been home runs.The past doesn't nece sarily predict the Pat Connaughton Jersey future, and Realmuto is his own being regardle s. But it should hearten Phillies fans that, as of late, teams are right more frequently than not when they bet big on a backstop.