Phillies: Great players you forgot played in Philadelphia

Which great players somehow found themselves in a Phillies uniform?

The creation of free agency virtually ended the era of players staying in one city for their entire career. Great players moved around the league much more than they ever did, and some made their way into a Phillies uniform.

Today, we’re looking at the great players who somehow found their way onto the Phillies.

We’re primarily looking at players who spent the majority of their career in one city and are known for playing there. When you think of Babe Ruth you think about the Yankees, not the Red Sox. When you think about Ken Griffey Jr. you think about the Mariners, not the White Sox.

While Roy Halladay was primarily a Blue Jay, his number is being retired in Philadelphia and some of his best games came as a Phillie. For those reasons we’re not counting him as a guy you forgot about.

Got it? Good.

We’re going to start with an honorable mention whose career was primarily in Cincinnati but produced here in Philadelphia enough for his name to be thought of in both cities, for better or worse.

Pete Rose (1979-83)

Pete Rose was the first superstar free agent to join the Phillies and was a major piece of the 1980 World Series team. Scandals have taken him out of baseball, off the Phillies Wall of Fame, and out of Cooperstown.

Before he signed with the Phillies, Rose was already writing a storybook, Hall of Fame career in Cincinnati with the Big Red Machine. By the time he signed his deal with Philadelphia, Rose already had 3,100 hits, 572 doubles, a .310 average, an MVP, 12 All-Star appearances, and a Rookie of the Year award.

Those are statistics any ballplayer would take in their career, let alone in their first run with a team.

When Rose came to Philadelphia, he continued to hit into his 40s with four more All-Star games, 826 more hits, and a World Series ring.

Rose had a tremendous career in Philadelphia, but he’ll forever be remembered as one of the catalysts for the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati.

Jim Kaat (1976-79)

One of the great pitchers of his era, Jim Kaat‘s time in Philadelphia is largely forgotten, likely because he’s best known for his 15 seasons as a Minnesota Twin.

At the age of 20, Katt made his major league debut for the Washington Senators in 1959. It went about as bad as you could expect for Kaat, giving up nine runs in five innings over three games. His second season was just as rough, finishing with a 1-5 record and a 5.58 ERA in 13 games.

When the Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins, Kaat’s career began to take a turn for the better. For the next 15 seasons he won at least 10 games and in seven straight seasons he won at least 14 games.

In 1966 with the Twins Kaat led the league with 25 wins, 19 of which were complete games. That feat led to him finishing in fifth for the American League MVP.

After 190 wins over 15 seasons with the Senators/Twins and a year removed from having a 2.06 ERA, Kaat was waived and picked up by the White Sox. Two years later on December 10, 1975, Kaat was traded by the  White Sox with Mike Buskey to the Philadelphia Phillies for Alan Bannister, Dick Ruthven, and Roy Thomas.

Pitching at 37-years-old in 1976, Kaat had another strong season with 12 wins in 38 games and a 3.48 ERA. Over the next four seasons in Philadephia Kaat would win 27 games, mostly as a starter.

Kaat would finish his career as a reliever for the Yankees and Cardinals before retiring with 283 wins and 16 Gold Gloves.

In 2003 Kaat received only 26.2% of the Hall of Fame votes on his final year of eligibility. Twice he’s been considered by the Golden Era committee, but both times he’s failed to receive enough votes.

Joe Morgan (1983)

A second member of the Big Red Machine who joined the Phillies for a short period of time is another Reds legend, Joe Morgan.

Though Morgan is mostly remembered for his time in Cincinnati, he actually started as a Houston Astro/Colt. 45 for parts of nine seasons before his career took off.

Morgan made his major league debut at second base just a couple of days after his 20th birthday for the then Houston Colt .45’s. Over those first nine seasons of his career with Houston, Morgan was nothing more than an average hitter with a .263 average and only three seasons with double-digit home runs.

After the 1971 season, Morgan was traded by the Houston Astros with Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo and Denis Menke to the Cincinnati Reds for Tommy Helms, Lee May and Jimmy Stewart.

In his first season with Cincinnati, Morgan was an MVP finalist making his first of eight consecutive All-Star teams. He would blossom into the Hall of Fame hitter he’s known as today with a .288 average, 1,155 hits, and over 400 stolen bases for one of the greatest teams in baseball history.

After brief stints in Houston and San Francisco, Morgan finally made his way to Philadelphia. The San Francisco Giants would trade Morgan and Al Holland to Philadelphia for C.L. Penigar, Mark Davis and Mike Krukow.

Now 40-years-old, Morgan wasn’t the player he once was, but he still contributed for the 1983 National League champion Phillies with 16 home runs, 18 stolen bases, and a .370 on-base percentage.

Morgan would retire one season after playing with Pete Rose in Philadelphia, and in 1990 he was inducted into Cooperstown on the first ballot.

Dale Murphy (1990-92)

Dale Murphy is remembered as one of the great power hitters of the late 1980s and as an Atlanta Brave. Few remember his time in Philadelphia where he spent parts of three seasons.

Murphy was drafted fifth overall by Atlanta in 1974 and after two short seasons in the big leagues, Murphy became a full-time player for the Braves in 1978.

In two of his first three seasons Murphy led the league in strikeouts but put up impressive power numbers, hitting 33 home runs in 1980 and earning his first All-Star nod.

In 1982 Murphy began putting up the Hall of Fame-worthy numbers people remember him for with his first of four consecutive seasons hitting 36 home runs or more.

After an MVP season in ’82, Murphy became (at the time) the youngest player to win back-to-back MVP awards when he repeated in ’83 with another 36 home run season.

In 1984 and ’85 Murphy would again lead the big leagues in home runs and picked up more Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers along the way.

After a career-high 44 home runs in 1987, Murphy’s career began to slow down. He would never hit 25 home runs or at least .260 in a season for the rest of his career or earn another accolade.

Midway through the 1990 season, Murphy was traded to Philadelphia with Tommy Greene and Jeff Parrett after 15 years in Atlanta. He’d have a decent season in 1991 with 18 home runs, but outside of that, he was unable to contribute much due to his knee.

Had he stayed healthy for just a couple more games, Murphy may have been able to hit his 400th home run as a Phillie. Instead, he fell just two home runs short.

Kenny Lofton (2005)

Here’s another guy who should have received more Hall of Fame consideration as one of the great players in the 1990s.

Something that might have hurt Kenny Lofton‘s Hall of Fame credentials is that he played for 11 teams in 17 seasons. He’s not associated as a “great” player with one franchise, but if he’s to be linked with a team, it would be the one where he spent a decade as one of baseball’s best young players.

Traded to Cleveland from Houston, Lofton emerged as one of the most dynamic players in the game. From 1992-96 he stole at least 54 bases and twice he stole 70 bags. In ’93 he hit .325 and followed that up with a .349 batting average in ’94 for Cleveland.

In almost any other season, Lofton would have won the MVP in 1994 and created more Hall of Fame buzz. That season there’d not only be a strike, but a lot of players put up crazy numbers. Each of the top-five AL MVP finalists hit at least .320 and the top-three had at least 36 home runs.

Lofton would finish fourth behind Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., and Albert Belle.

From 1992-2001 as a member of the Indians and Braves, Lofton had 1,627 hits. Only six other players had as many hits during that time. Three of them (Roberto Alomar, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio) are in the Hall of Fame, Rafael Palmeiro is linked to steroids, and Mark Grace and Dante Bichette were among the elite hitters of their time.

After 2001, Lofton’s tour of nearly half of the league began. Strangely, he would spend no more than one season with each of the eight teams he would go on to join, playing for the Pirates, Dodgers, Phillies, White Sox, Giants, Rangers, Cubs, and Yankees.

Lofton was still a fairly productive player, mainly on the base paths with at least 20 stolen bases in five of his last six seasons.

On December 3, 2004, Lofton was traded by the Yankees to Philadelphia for Felix Rodriguez. Playing at the age of 38 for the Phillies, Lofton hit .335 in 110 games with 22 stolen bases.

In an era where power was key, Lofton did the little things and turned them into big things. Unfortunately, and somewhat criminally, he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot on his first year of eligibility in 2013.

That year no players were elected by the writers for Hall of Fame enshrinement. It was also the first year of eligibility for Palmereio, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens, who each received enough votes to stay on the ballot.

Pedro Martinez (2009)

Coming off a World Series championship in 2008 the Phillies felt like they had the pitching to get through another championship run. When Cole Hamels struggled, Chan Ho Park didn’t produce, and other guys fell onto the disabled list, the team called upon Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez to get the job done.

Before we got there, let’s remember what Pedro had done in his illustrious career.

Born in Manoguayabo, Dominican Republic Pedro Martinez made his major league debut with the Dodgers only a couple of days before his 21st birthday. He was fantastic in his first two years with LA with a 2.58 ERA in 67 games and 10 wins as a reliever in 1993.

After the ’93 season Pedro was traded to Montreal for Delino DeShields Sr., and after three decent seasons with the Expos, Pedro became Pedro.

In 1997 Martinez won the Cy Young with a league-best 1.90 ERA and 13 complete games in 31 starts. After that season he’d be traded to Boston for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas in arguably the greatest trade in Red Sox history.

Martinez would win three Cy Youngs in four years between Montreal and Boston and during his seven year reign in Boston Martinez finished in the top-four for the Cy Young six times.

In 2004 he helped break the Red Sox curse and won a World Series with 16 wins and 227 strikeouts.

For the next four years the Phillies saw a lot of Pedro when he signed with the Mets. His 2005 season was excellent, but after that it was clear he wasn’t the same guy.

Now, back to where Pedro became a Phillie.

Pedro hadn’t signed with a team in the offseason leading up to 2009. After pitching in the World Baseball Classic, the Phillies signed him to a one-year deal to help get them back to a World Series.

In nine regular season starts Pedro went 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA and 37 strikeouts. He sealed career win number 219 as a member of the Phillies with eight shutout innings against his old team.

In the NLCS against Los Angeles Pedro threw seven two-hit shutout innings in a 2-1 loss. He took two losses to the Yankees in the World Series, allowing seven runs in 10 innings with 13 strikeouts.

In 2015 Pedro was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot with over 91 percent of the vote.

Roy Oswalt (2010-11)

If you took the first eight years of Roy Oswalt’s career with the Houston Astros and spread them out for the rest of his career, you’re looking at a Hall of Fame pitcher. Oswalt worked as hard and quiet as any pitcher in his era, producing back to back 20 win seasons and winning at least 10 games in 9 of his first 10 seasons.

Drafted in the 23rd round of the 1996 draft by Houston, Oswalt finished in the top-five for the Cy Young in five of his first six seasons. A couple of votes different and he could have multiple Cy Young’s on his resume.

Oswalt pitched for some of the really good Astros teams in the early 2000s including the 2005 team that was swept out of the World Series by the White Sox. After years of winning baseball, the Astros began to decline and started shipping out their veterans to begin a long rebuild.

Leading up to the July trade deadline, Houston traded Oswalt to the Phillies for Anthony Gose, J.A. Happ and Jonathan Villar.

After being traded to the Phillies Oswalt was dominant, winning six games with a 1.73 ERA in the regular season.

In game two of the NLCS against San Francisco Oswalt went eight innings allowing just three hits and one run with nine strikeouts. He held his own in the deciding game six with one earned run allowed in six innings.

Oswalt entered the 2011 season as the number four pitcher behind Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels. While he won nine games with a 3.69 ERA, back injuries and a tornado in his hometown disrupted the season.

After that season Oswalt’s career dipped off and he finished with short tenures in Texas and Colorado before retiring. In 2019 he received just four Hall of Fame votes and fell off the ballot.

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.