Phillies: Power ranking players in the Hall of Famers

Fergie Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg

Unfortunately for the Phillies, Fergie Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg played a combined 21 games for the club despite each coming up through the farm system.

Jenkins and Sandberg are the subjects of the worst trades in franchise history, both of which involved the Chicago Cubs.

Signed by the Phillies on June 15, 1962, the right-handed Canadian starter Jenkins spent four seasons in the Phillies farm system with tremendous success. In 99 minor league games Jenkins had a 2.85 ERA and won 40 games.

Philadelphia called Jenkins up from Triple-A Arkansas in September 1965 where he allowed no runs in his first 7.2 innings, all as a reliever. He finished the season with a 2-1 record highlighted by a save and a 2.19 ERA.

Jenkins made one relief appearance for the Phillies on April 20, 1966, before the club traded him the next day to the Cubs along with John Herrnstein and Adolfo Phillips for Bob Buhl and Larry Jackson.

By today’s standard, the trade was horrendous for the Phillies, even without knowing Jenkins would be a Hall of Famer. Buhl and Jackson were pitchers in their late 30s who would soon end their careers in Philadelphia.

Jenkins would go on to win 284 games with a 3.34 ERA, 3,192 strikeouts, 267 complete games, and the 1971 Cy Young award. He finished top-three in Cy Young votes five times and finished fifth in the 1974 MVP race.

As for Sandberg, a 20th round selection in 1978, the Phillies called him up one year after their first championship to play 13 games in September and October. About four months later the Phillies would trade Larry Bowa and one of the greatest second basemen of all-time to the Cubs for Ivan de Jesus, a shortstop coming off a zero home run, .194 batting average season.

The rest is history with Sandberg, who would hit 282 home runs, win an MVP, collect nine Gold Gloves, make 10 All-Star games, and earn seven Silver Slugger before being inducted into the Hall of Fame on his third ballot in 2005.

Sandberg would infamously manage the Phillies one whole season and two partial seasons before quitting on the team midway through the 2015 season. During his tenure the club had a .428 winning percentage and 119 wins, the second-fewest in team history for a three-year manager.

Yes, the Phillies traded two Hall of Famers who won a Cy Young, MVP, 13 All-Star games, and a whole lot of street-cred in Chicago.

Joe Morgan and Tony Perez (and kinda Pete Rose)

Joe Morgan and Tony Perez were nowhere near the players they were for Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine by the time they arrived in Philadelphia.

Before joining the Phillies in 1983, Morgan and Perez had solidified their Hall of Fame resumes by collecting a combined 4,862 hits, 876 doubles, 609 home runs, two MVPs, 17 All-Star selections, five Gold Gloves, and two World Series rings apiece.

Morgan was 39, entering his second to last season, when he came to Philadelphia and Perez turned 41 midseason after going to Montreal and Boston. They reunited with former Big Red Machine teammate Pete Rose, who joined the Phillies in 1980.

Neither Morgan nor Perez did anything spectacular in their one season with Philadelphia, though the team did make its second World Series appearance in four years. Morgan hit a career-worst .230 in 123 games with 16 home runs and 45 more walks than strikeouts, still making him a valuable presence on the team.

Perez appeared in just 91 games with 11 doubles, two triples, and six home runs as a role player, and added three hits in five postseason games.

Morgan would retire after the following season and Perez after three more with the Reds coming off the bench. Morgan received 81.8 percent of the Hall of Fame votes on his first ballot in 1990, and Perez joined him 10 years later after receiving 77.2 percent on his ninth ballot.

Ultimately Morgan and Perez’s careers in Philadelphia were a blip on the radar, but their time in Philadelphia should not be forgotten as part of their journey to Cooperstown.

Pedro Martinez

Likely Perez and Morgan, Pedro Martinez was past his prime when he joined the Phillies midway through the 2009 season. Signing with the reigning World Champions in July, Martinez brought the poise and dominance Philadelphia’s rotation needed.

Entering the 2009 season Philadelphia was riding the wave of Cole Hamels and the experience of Jamie Moyer in the rotation. Hamels fell flat early in 2009, free agent Chan Ho Park was a wash, and Brett Myers struggled.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. needed a sparkplug, so he signed the future Hall of Famer Martinez then traded for Cy Young winner Cliff Lee two weeks later.

With three Cy Youngs, five ERA titles, eight All-Star selections, and a Triple Crown, Martinez helped stabilize the rotation along with Lee and rookie J.A. Happ.

Martinez won five of his first seven starts and shutout the Mets in eight innings on national television on Sept. 13 for his 219th and final regular season win.

Pedro made his 2009 playoff debut in the NLCS against Los Angeles where he spun seven innings of two-hit shutout beauty. Unfortunately, the offense could only muster one run off former Phillie Vicente Padilla and the beleaguered Chan Ho Park gave up two runs in the eighth (assisted by a rare Chase Utley throwing error) to lose game two.

The Phillies would give Pedro the ball in games two and four of the World Series against his old foes in New York. In game two Martinez went six innings giving up six hits and three runs off home runs by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui. He took the loss in a game where the Phillies only run came courtesy of a Matt Stairs RBI single.

After staving off elimination in game five thanks to two Chase Utley home runs, Martinez took the ball in game six back in Yankee Stadium. He’d give up four RBI to Matsui, one a home run and the other a two-run double, in four innings. Game six would be the last time Martinez donned a major league jersey, retiring that offseason as one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, unfortunately, unable to leave the game on top.

Martinez was elected with 91.1 percent of the Hall of Fame vote his first year on the ballot, and has the 13th most strikeouts in baseball history.

Despite his Phillies career being shortlived, the team likely wouldn’t have reached their second-consecutive World Series without him.

Jim Thome

Few players in the history of baseball, let alone those who donned a Phillies uniform, is better liked than Jim Thome.

“Gentleman Jim” is as great a person as he was a home run hitter, a lot to say considering he’s eighth on the all-time long ball list.

Thome signed in Philadelphia after the team’s 80-81 2002 season where they barely drew in 1.6 million fans at Veterans Stadium. In the Vets final season, the team drew in the most fans (2.259 million) since the 1993 team. The inaugural season at Citizens Bank Park brought in a franchise-record 3.25 million fans, partially thanks to the life and star-power Thome brought.

In his first season with the Phillies Thome hit a league-high 47 home runs and finished fourth in the MVP race. After hitting 42 the following year and making the All-Star team in 2004 Thome dealt with injuries and lost playing time to Ryan Howard.

Philadelphia would trade the 35-year-old to Chicago for Aaron Rowand, Gio Gonzalez, and Daniel Haigwood prior to the 2006 season, which ushered in Howard’s rookie year and the beginning of Philadelphia’s World Championship core.

Thome would return to Philadelphia as a bench player in 2012, his final season, before being traded to Baltimore for prospects  Gabriel Lino and Kyle Simon, neither of whom are still with the organization.

While playing just 391 of his 2,543 career games in Philadelphia, Thome left a lasting impact on the Phillies organization as a player and person. His induction into the Hall of Fame was met with overwhelming support from Phillies fans, and the team honored him with a Wall of Fame induction in 2016.

Roy Halladay

Another Hall of Famer with a short stint in Philadelphia, Roy Halladay became a fan favorite thanks to a unique combination of dominance and hard work. The fans recognized Doc’s work ethic, even if they never saw everything he put his body through to perform the way he did.

After failing to clinch consecutive World Series titles, the Phillies felt like they needed some star power to push them over the top. Halladay was Ruben Amaro Jr.’s white whale, and the team pursued Halladay hard the following offseason.

Halladay voiced his desire to play in Philadelphia, and the club sent a haul of prospects, including top prospect Kyle Drabek, to the Blue Jays in exchange for a Toronto legend.

There isn’t much that can be said about how perfect Halladay’s first season in Philadelphia was. A perfect game, postseason no-hitter, and a league leader in nearly every pitching category led to Doc winning his second Cy Young award.

After a second season where he was just as brilliant, Halladay’s body began to breakdown and his effectiveness as a pitcher wained. Doc retired after the 2013 season after pitching in just 13 games the prior season.

Tragically, Halladay will never see himself in Cooperstown after dying in a plane crash off the coast of Florida in Nov. 2017. The Phillies and Blue Jays each honored Halladay leading up to his posthumous first-ballot Hall of Fame induction in 2019.

Jim Bunning

While most Phillies fans alive today never witnessed the great Jim Bunning pitch, they know the place he holds not just in Phillies history, but in baseball lore.

Like Roy Halladay, Bunning established himself as one of the game’s great pitchers in the American League pitching for the Detroit Tigers. After two partial seasons with the Dodgers Bunning won a league-high 20 games and made his first All-Star team in 1957.

Bunning would be a perennial All-Star leading the league in multiple statistics, including twice in strikeouts.

In 1963 the Phillies acquired Bunning from the Tigers for Jack Hamilton, a 24-year-old pitcher who’d recently broken into the big leagues, and an established hitter in Don Demeter.

Bunning would go onto have one of the great careers for a Phillies pitcher, winning at least 17 games in each of his four seasons in Philadelphia. He’d earn two All-Star selections, MVP consideration, and in 1967 a second-place Cy Young finish.

In his inaugural Phillies season in 1964, Bunning would throw the first perfect game in Phillies history.

When Bunning retired, he was second on the all-time strikeouts list to Walter Johnson with 2,855. Bunning was also the second pitcher, behind Hall of Famer Cy Young, to win 100 games and collect 1,000 strikeouts in both circuits, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Philadelphia retired Bunning’s number 14 in 2001, five years after the Veteran’s Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame.

Richie Ashburn

Richie Ashburn is the first of the four undisputed, greatest Phillies of all-time, one of only five players to have a number retired by the organization.

A prototypical leadoff hitter, Ashburn spent the majority of his 15-year career with the Phillies. At the ripe age of 21, Ashburn hit .333 and stole a league-high 32 bases en route to a third-place finish for Rookie of the Year and 11th place for the MVP.

In all but one season of his Phillies career, Ashburn would lead the league in at least one category, whether it be stolen bases, triples, hits, or batting average. Three times he collected at least 200 hits, each season leading the league.

Ashburn hit a career-best and league-high .350 with a .440 on-base percentage in 1958, his fourth of six All-Star selections.

A key member of the 1950 National League Champion “Whiz Kids” Ashburn led the league with 14 triples and had another .300 season, a feat he accomplished in 9 of his 15 seasons.

Ashburn is the franchise’s all-time leader in singles both in a single season (181) and all-time (1,811).

He’s second in times on base, third in franchise history in games, at-bats, plate appearances, walks and hits, fourth in runs scored and wins above replacement, fifth in triples, eighth in total bases and on-base percentage and ninth in doubles in franchise history.

After Ashburn’s playing career ended, he joined Harry Kalas in the broadcast booth, a position he would hold for almost 35 years.

Ashburn never was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, only reaching 41.7 percent of votes at his highest point. He was instead inducted in by the Veterans Committee in 1995, just two years before his death in 1997. He was inducted alongside Mike Schmidt and had his No. 1 retired by the team.

Robin Roberts

Like Ashburn and Bunning, few Phillies fans alive today saw the impact Robin Roberts had on the Phillies organization. A team often on the losing side of games, Roberts won 234 games in 14 seasons with the Phillies. He won 20 games in six consecutive seasons and also earned an All-Star selection in each of those seasons.

A true workhorse during his historic Phillies career, Roberts led the league in complete games five consecutive times and threw 28 consecutive complete games.

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Roberts threw 272 complete games, 35 shutouts, and had a 234-199 record during his Phillies tenure. The greatest righty in Phillies history finished his Philadelphia career with a 3.46 ERA, 1.171 WHIP, and 2.61 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Roberts is the franchise’s all-time leader in pitching WAR, games played, innings pitched, and complete games. Prior to Steve Carlton’s arrival, Roberts was the franchise leader (and now second all-time,) in wins, strikeouts, and starts.

After the 1961 season, the Yankees would buy Roberts away from the Phillies, yet he’d never pitch for New York. Baltimore would sign Roberts immediately after New York released him on May 21, 1962, leading to four solid seasons for Roberts.

Roberts would finish his career with appearances for the Astros and Cubs before retiring after the 1966 season. Ten years later he would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Philadelphia made him the first player in franchise history to have his number retired, doing so while he was still an active player.

Steve Carlton

Where do you start with one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history?

Steve Carlton broke into the big leagues as a 20-year-old for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1965. A three-time All-Star for the Cardinals, Carlton had a 2.17 ERA in 1969 and led the league with 19 losses the following season.

Philadelphia then took a chance on Carlton after the 1971 season, sending Rick Wise to the midwest for the lefty Carlton. It would end up being one of, if not the, greatest trades in Phillies history.

Philadelphia Phillies

Carlton was dominant from the getgo, winning the Cy Young and Triple Crown in his inaugural Phillies season with 27 wins, a 1.97 ERA, and 310 strikeouts. He completed 30 of his 41 starts, both a league-high, while being credited with nearly half of the Phillies wins that year.

In 1973 Carlton won 13 games and led the league with 18 complete games for a Phillies club that won just 71 games. For Carlton to have more complete games than wins is mindboggling.

Four years later Carlton won his second Cy Young after winning 23 games. During the 1980 championship season, Carlton won another Cy Young and nearly won the Triple Crown, finishing second to 35-year-old Don Sutton just .14 points behind.

In 1982 Carlton again won the Cy Young with a league-high 23 wins, 19 complete games, six shutouts, and 286 strikeouts.

Carlton’s Hall of Fame Phillies career ended with his midseason release in 1986. He’d finish up his career with the Indians, Giants, Twins, and White Sox before being enshrined into Cooperstown in 1994. Carlton was the first pitcher to win four Cy Youngs and is the Phillies all-time leader in wins, strikeouts, and starts.

With 329 career wins, Carlton sits 11th on the all-time wins list in baseball history and fourth with 4.136 strikeouts.

Mike Schmidt

The greatest third baseman in the history of this great game is also the greatest player to ever wear a Phillies uniform.

Michael Jack Schmidt came to the Phillies with great expectations, most of which weren’t met immediately upon joining the club in 1972-73. By 1974 Schmidt came into his own, hitting a league-high 36 home runs and finishing sixth for the MVP.

Schmidt would lead the league in home runs three consecutive years, eight in all during a marvelous 18-year career, all in Philadelphia.

In the Phillies first championship season Schmidt won his first MVP award thanks to a league-high 48 home runs and 121 RBI. He followed up that season with another MVP campaign, once again leading the league with 31 home runs and 91 RBI in a strike-shortened season.

The great third baseman would win a third MVP in 1986 and be elected to his 10th of 12 All-Star games.

Schmidt led the NL in home runs eight times, RBIs four times, slugging percentage five times and on-base percentage three times. He holds the career record for home runs by a third baseman and is ninth all-time in home runs by a Hall of Famer.

Schmidt led the league in home runs eight times, second only to Babe Ruth’s 12.

Schmidt was not only renowned for his bat, but also for his historically-great glove. He’d win 9 of his 10 Gold Gloves in consecutive seasons.

During the 1989 season Schmidt retired from the game and saw his number be retired teh following season. In 1995 Schmidt joined Richie Ashburn in the Hall of Fame after receiving all but 16 votes on his first ballot.