Phillies: Breaking down the second Hunter Pence trade

Hunter Pence returns to Philadelphia once again as a member of the San Francisco Giants. How’d the Phillies make out in the trade that sent Pence to the Bay Area years ago?

Off the bat, this was a horribly orchestrated myriad of moves by Ruben Amaro Jr. from the start. The organization traded several top prospects to Houston to acquire Pence at the deadline in 2011, which included the Domingo Santana fiasco.

For those unfamiliar, Amaro accidentally put Santana on a list of eligible prospects the team could send to Houston as a “player to be named later.”

Just over one year to the day later the Phillies would send their free-swinging outfielder to San Francisco in exchange for two prospects and below-average major league outfielder.

First, a recap of the trade that brought Pence to Philadelphia via the Houston Astros.

Singleton appeared on the Astros major league roster but is back in Double-A trying to hit every pitch out of the park. Cosart was subsequently traded to the Marlins, then went to San Diego in the controversial Andrew Cashner trade involving an injured player.

Zeid is in the Cardinals minor league system after getting sporadic chances in the majors, while Santana starts for the first place Brewers after being part of the Carlos Gomez trade.

Then, we have the move that sent Pence out to the Bay Area from Philadelphia once year later.

Schierholtz finished the 2012 season with Philadelphia and was granted free agency less than four months after the trade. He’s currently a free agent facing an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

Despite being acquired in the trade, Philadelphia opted not to protect Rosin from the Rule 5 Draft in December of 2013 after mixed results in the minors. Rosin would eventually find himself back to Philadelphia, where he appeared in one game, allowing five runs off seven hits in two innings.

Rosin is no longer in Major League Baseball after being released by Minnesota in March.

Joseph was considered the crown jewel of the trade, and the ultimate heir to Carlos Ruiz behind the plate. The Giants sixth-overall prospect, Joseph battled concussions as a catcher throughout his career.

At one point the Phillies failed to protect Joseph from the Rule 5 Draft because of his concussion history, but ultimately moved him to first base. The rest is history, as Joseph is beginning to establish himself as an everyday first baseman.

Still, without a full year’s worth major league at-bats between his first two years in Philadelphia, Joseph is proving to be a 30-home run caliber hitter.

Related Story: Phillies June Schedule Looks Unfavorable Early

Across the country, Pence helped carry the Giants to two World Series victories in 2012 and 2014 while battling injuries of his own. The outfielder is likely to miss the series in Philadelphia with a hamstring issue, something he battled last season and missed 54 days with.

The season prior was even worse injury wise for Pence, as he dealt with a broken forearm, wrist tendonitis, and a strained oblique.

All those injuries come after playing every regular season game for two straight years in San Francisco.

Ultimately the Giants walked away fairly pleased as they essentially traded Pence for Joseph considering Rosin and Schierholtz were thrown away by both organizations.

If Joseph can establish himself even more as a clean-up hitter and the first baseman of the future, the Phillies may ultimately come out on top.

Next: Five things to watch for in the Giants series

Phillies-Giants begins Friday night from Philadelphia at 7 p.m.