8 Halloween-scary trades that still haunt Phillies fans
By Matt Rappa
3. Traded OF Hunter Pence and cash considerations to the San Francisco Giants for OF Nate Schierholtz, C Tommy Joseph and RHP Seth Rosin.
July 31, 2012
As crazy as it sounds, Hunter Pence never played one full season in a Phillies uniform. He was acquired ahead of the July 2011 trade deadline from the Houston Astros for Jarred Cosart, Jon Singleton, Josh Zeid, and Domingo Santana. And, ahead of the following season’s deadline, he was dealt to the San Francisco Giants.
Luckily for the Phillies, the prospects they dealt to acquire Pence did not develop into Major League stars; however, neither did Nate Schierholtz, Tommy Joseph, nor Seth Rosin, who they acquired from the Giants.
In 155 games in red pinstripes, Pence did not disappoint, slashing .289/.357/.486 with 27 doubles, 28 home runs, and 94 RBI. Equate that to a full162-game season, and Pence would be close to the 30 home runs and 100 RBI mark.
During the overall disappointing 2011 NLDS finish against the St. Louis Cardinals, Pence even collected four RBI; it was his first of 10 career postseason series. His Giants teams would go on to win the next eight, while earning two World Series championships in the process.
The four-time All-Star’s best career postseason series performance came in the 2014 Fall Classic opposite the Kansas City Royals, when he produced eight singles, three doubles, one home run, and five RBI across the seven-game series.
What makes this trade “haunt” the Phillies, even more, is that Schierholtz only played 37 games with the Phillies, hitting .273, before joining the Chicago Cubs in 2013-14 and the Washington Nationals in 2014 to finish out his career. The Phillies also shifted the only highly regarded catching prospect Joseph to first base, however, he played just two seasons and 249 games in red pinstripes from 2016-17, albeit slugging 43 home runs and producing 116 RBI. Rosin, meanwhile, only made one appearance with the Phillies in which he allowed five runs and seven hits spanning two innings; he never pitched in the majors again.
Pence quickly became a staple in Giants history, whereas it feels like the Phillies moved on from him too quickly; granted, they have not returned to the postseason since 2011, but who is to say he could not have helped move the needle further to contention had he remained on the roster.