Phillies: Great players you forgot played in Philadelphia

Juan Pierre (2012)

Similar to Kenny Lofton, Juan Pierre’s career as a speedy and consistent hitter was never fully appreciated to the degree it should be.

Even more so than Lofton, Pierre traveled across the league and never stuck out as someone who played for “that team.” It’s easy to forget he started his career in Colorado as a 13th round pick of the Rockies. He had 62 hits as a rookie in just 51 games, finishing sixth in the Rookie of the Year vote.

His 2001 season started an eight year run where all he did was run, stealing at least 40 bags each season. He led the league in stolen bases three times in his career and stole more than 60 three times.

On November 16, 2002, Pierre was traded by the Colorado Rockies with Mike Hampton and cash to the Florida Marlins for Vic Darensbourg, Charles Johnson, Pablo Ozuna and Preston Wilson. Over the next five years he would play in all 162 games and unofficially played in 821 consecutive games from 2002 to 2007. The game that makes that streak unofficial was one where he appeared solely as a pinch-runner in 2005, which resulted in two separate games-played streaks of 386 and 434 games.

From 2006-11 Pierre played for the White Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs before coming to Philadelphia as a free agent for the 2012 season.

In his lone season for the Phillies, Pierre had 121 hits in 130 games with 37 stolen bases, a league-high 17 sacrifice hits, and a .307 batting average.

Pierre would return to the Marlins where he notched career stolen base 600 and finished with 614, the 18th most in baseball history.

Pierre fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2019 after receiving zero votes during his first year of eligibility. Never making an All-Star game or a notable award certainly hurt him, but it’s hard to ignore over 600 stolen bases and over 2,200 hits.