4 Phillies players who skipped the minors and went straight to MLB

How many Philadelphia Phillies’ draft picks skipped Minor League Baseball altogether and went straight to MLB?

The pipeline from the MLB draft to making one’s major-league debut grows increasingly narrow, like a funnel; only approximately ten percent of minor leaguers will make it to The Show, and the number who actually stick at the top level is even lower.

However, throughout MLB history, there have also been players who skipped Minor League Baseball (or previous versions of it) altogether and headed straight to the top.

Altogether, four Philadelphia Phillies have bypassed the minors, and of the players on this list, Dick Ruthven is the only one not part of the “Bonus Babies” generation, as he was drafted in the modern format.

From 1947 until the official draft began in 1965, the ever-changing bonus rule was MLB’s first attempt at leveling the playing field. They wanted to curtail the practice of richer teams stockpiling the best players in their farm systems, so they stipulated that if a team wanted to tender a contract to a new player for more than $4,000, they had to place him on the 25-man roster for two full seasons. If they failed to do so, they’d lose the player. In 1962, the rule reduced the roster time to one full season.

Here are the Phillies who went right to The Show…

Tom Qualters (1953)

Tom Qualters was one of the biggest failures of the Bonus Era and a reminder of why the Minors are the lifeblood of the Majors.

Far exceeding the $4,000 “Bonus Baby” limit, the Phillies signed Qualters out of high school for $40,000, the equivalent of $443,911.61 today. The Pennsylvania native was a three-sport athlete and an excellent pitcher in school.

Because of the bonus rule, the Phillies had to put him on the 25-man roster. Unfortunately for the rookie, the rule didn’t say anything about actually playing, so he sat on the sidelines for almost the entire 1953 campaign. He made exactly one appearance in which he faced seven batters, gave up six earned runs on four hits, walked a batter, and only recorded one out. The first batter of his MLB career homered off him, an inauspicious beginning.

In 1954, Qualters made MLB history as the first player to spend an entire season on the roster without appearing in a single game, further exposing the holes in the Bonus Rule system. Years of his prime were spent on the bench instead of developing his potential in the minors.

Finally, in 1955, the Phillies sent him down to the farm. After seven more relief appearances for the Phillies between 1957-58, they sold his contract to the Chicago White Sox at the end of April. While Qualters went on to have a long and fulfilling life (he’s 87 years old), Phillies fans of that era will always wonder what could have been if he’d begun his career in the minors.

Dick Ruthven (1973)

Two decades after Tom Qualters bypassed the minors, Dick Ruthven did the same.

But unlike the previous three players on this list, Ruthven’s MLB career was much more than a cup of coffee. In his debut season, the righty made 25 appearances, including 23 starts, two games finished, three complete games, one shutout, and a save. The next year, he was a full-time starter with 35 games.

Following the 1975 season, the Phillies traded Ruthven to the Chicago White Sox, who promptly flipped him to the Atlanta Braves. He’d gone from pitching on the same team as Steve Carlton, to working in the same rotation as Phil Niekro.

In 1976, Ruthven was an All-Star with the Braves, though he’d also go on to lead the NL with 17 losses and a career-high 112 earned runs. By June 1978, he was back in Philly, just in time for the team to win a division and begin building towards greatness.

Ruthven’s name won’t be as familiar to younger Phillies fans as those of his teammates, a stellar cast of characters that included Carlton, Tug McGraw, and Mike Schmidt, but 1980 was one of the best seasons of his 14-year career. Over 33 regular-season starts, he compiled a 3.38 ERA and threw over 230 innings for the second time in his Phillies career. His performance played a key role in the first championship in franchise history. He even had a second All-Star season the following year, though he also led MLB in earned runs allowed.

After four years with the Chicago Cubs, where he played with former Phillies rookie Fergie Jenkins, Ruthven’s big-league career was over.

Honorary mention: Eppa Rixey

Eppa Rixey Jr. gets a nod because he skipped the minors, but he played baseball long before the official MLB draft began in 1965.

After getting discovered while playing college ball at the University of Virginia, where he earned a degree in chemistry, Rixey signed with the Phillies ahead of the 1912 season, rather than person a career as a chemist. He pitched for them in two stints, first from 1912-17, and again from 1919-20, after serving in the military. He was on their first pennant-winning team, and faced the Boston Red Sox in the 1915 World Series.

Ahead of the 1921 season, the Phillies traded him to the Cincinnati Reds, where he pitched until 1933.

By all accounts, Rixey was popular among his teammates, modest about his career, and a ‘consummate gentleman.” He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963, but sadly, he passed away one month later, before he could enjoy his induction.