Phillies: Most impactful trade made with every team

Tampa Bay Devil Rays: Bobby Abreu

"On November 18, 1997, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays traded Bobby Abreu to the Philadelphia Phillies for Kevin Stocker."

One of the most underrated players for the Phillies in the early 2000s was Bobby Abreu.

Many forget that Abreu wasn’t a homegrown player for the Phillies and that he bounced around the league early in his life.

Abreu started his career in Houston and had a cup of coffee with the Astros in parts of two seasons. When the Rays came into the league they took Abreu in the expansion draft and immediately swapped him to the Phillies for Kevin Stocker.

Stocker was the Phillies second round pick in the 1991 MLB June Amateur Draft from the University of Washington. He finished sixth in the Rookie of the Year in 1993 and played sporadically for five years hitting .262.

Abreu certainly did much more in his nine years with the Phillies, receiving MVP consideration and consistently hitting .300 or better. In his eight seasons with the Phillies Abreu hit no worse than .286 and hit .300 six times, topping it with a .335 batting average in 1999.

Abreu also put up seven straight seasons of 35 doubles, 20 home runs, and 20 stolen bases. He’s the all-time leader in number of seasons with those stats with nine.

Only Barry and Bobby Bonds (10) had more 20 home run/20 stolen base seasons than Abreu.

Abreu, unfortunately, didn’t play his entire career with the Phillies and was traded to the Yankees. He’s an all-time outfielder in the organization and was inducted onto the Phillies Wall of Fame in 2019. This is one of the best and most underrated trades in franchise history.