8 biggest one-hit wonders in Phillies history

In Major League Baseball (or any professional sports league, really) there are stars, good players, and players who are merely average. There are also those who barely hang on and/or bounce around, the journeymen and "replacement level" players who can at least say they made The Show even if they weren't exactly memorable to the masses.

A select few, however, are able to achieve some degree of success in one season and one season only, never to repeat it again before fading away. In the dense history of the Philadelphia Phillies, there are many names to choose from that fall into this last category.

These are their stories.

Rather than ranking them all against one another based on how good the season in question was or how unlikely of an outlier it might have been, we'll take a chronological look at these seasons and work toward present day. We'll also be skipping over a large chunk of Phillies history that the vast majority of today's fans weren't alive to see and focusing in on the past 50 years or so, because it's usually more fun to be able to say "Hey, I remember that guy!"

Wayne Twitchell, 1973

Highly touted out of high school, the huge right-hander was taken third overall by the Astros in the 1966 draft, but he never signed with them, and his rights were purchased from Houston by the Brewers after the 1969 season. He saw all of 1 2/3 innings pitched for Milwaukee in 1970 before the Phillies traded for him on the day before the 1971 season started, just as the Phils were set to open Veterans Stadium.

Spending most of the campaign in the minors, Twitchell wouldn't make his Phillies debut until September of that year, getting into six games. His big break would come the following season, as he appeared in 49 games (15 starts) and looked like a reliable arm for that infamously bad 1972 team. Then, in 1973, it all came together for him.

Twitchell started the 1973 season in a middle relief role, but he worked his way into the rotation by the middle of May, and he never let up. In June, he threw four straight complete games (two shutouts) to run his record to 6-2 with a 1.92 ERA. His ERA remained under 2.00 past July 4, and his efforts earned him an All-Star selection. He pitched the sixth inning of that game. After allowing a leadoff double to John Mayberry (yes, John Mayberry, Jr's dad), he struck out Reggie Jackson and then retired Delaware native Dave May and Bobby Murcer to complete a scoreless inning.

Twitchell's fine work continued in the second half of the year, and he finished the 1973 season with a 13-9 record and a 2.50 ERA. He was just 25 years old, and it seemed like the Phillies had a rotation fixture, but it wasn't meant to be, as a collision at first base ended his season early and set off a string of injuries and ineffectiveness that he would battle over the next few years.

He put up a 5.21 ERA in 1974 and a 4.45 mark in 1975. He was used sparingly in a bullpen role in 1976 with good results, but the writing was on the wall, and Twitchell was shipped to the Expos in 1977. He'd have stops with the Mets and Mariners in subsequent years, and he was out of the big leagues by 1979. Wayne Twitchell, one of the unlikeliest and most forgotten Phillies all-stars ever, died in 2010.

John Denny, 1983

John Denny wasn't exactly a "nobody" by the time he came to the Phillies. The soon-to-be 30-year-old righthander had already put up a trio of double-digit win seasons in his career so far, which had been split between St. Louis and Cleveland. After being traded to the Phillies in 1982, he made four starts down the home stretch, effectively auditioning for a starting slot in 1983. The Phillies liked what they saw, so they rolled with him to start the following year. And they're quite glad they did.

After a middling first two starts to open the season, Denny rattled off three complete games to close out the month of April. He followed that up with an excellent May, bringing his ERA all the way down to 1.86 by the end of the month. He continued to put up fine performances every time out (often on just three days rest, mind you), although he somehow was passed over for an All-Star selection.

No matter, though, as Denny kept on chugging along and ended up throwing 242 2/3 innings, putting up a record of 19-6 with a 2.37 ERA to claim one of the most unheralded Cy Young wins in baseball history. He makes an excellent Immaculate Grid answer, as a result.

But, true to form for this list, Denny never recaptured his 1983 magic. He went 7-7 in 1984 (still with a fine ERA), but the cracks really started to show in 1985 when he put up an 11-14 mark and saw his ERA jump by well over a full run. It didn't help that the team around him was getting older and worse, but Denny was nevertheless shipped out to the Reds after the 1985 season. He took a regular turn in their rotation for one season, then hung up his spikes at age 33.

José de Jesús, 1991

You could be forgiven for forgetting about the tall, lanky de Jesús because of the passage of time and how bad the Phillies were when he was on the team, but he merits a mention. Signed by the Royals at just 18, de Jesús paid his dues working his way up their system (he was briefly Toronto property from the Rule 5 draft but was returned to KC) before finally appearing in two games for Kansas City in 1988 and then three games in 1989. Then, just before the start of the 1990 season, de Jesús came to the Phillies in a trade for noted home run hitter and future bounty hunter, Steve Jeltz.

Given a new lease on his career, the 25-year-old de Jesús started 22 games for the Phillies in 1990, and he was notably un-terrible, going 7-8 with a 3.74 ERA for Nick Leyva's 77-win ballclub. That's a high degree of difficulty, and de Jesús did not embarrass himself. But the best was yet to come.

In 1991 under new skipper Jim Fregosi, de Jesús took a regular turn in the rotation all year, amassing a 10-9 record to go along with a very nice 3.42 ERA over 181 2/3 innings. He even twirled three complete games. He also led the National League in walks, but we'll ignore that part, as he was effectively wild. Unfortunately, though, his success stopped right there.

Injuries kept de Jesús on the shelf for the entirety of 1992, and he spent all of 1993 trying to ramp up in the minors for the Phillies. At the end of that season, his contract ran out, the Phillies made no effort to bring him back, and he reunited with the Royals for all of five games in 1994.

He never saw the majors again after that, bouncing all over the minors, including a brief stint with the Atlantic City Surf during their inaugural season in 1998. It's a shame that de Jesús could never really build on his success from 1991, but it makes him a prime candidate for this kind of list.

Tyler Green, 1995

We're talking about "one-year wonders" here, but how about "half-year wonders?" Because Tyler Green fits that bill. Green was originally drafted in the third round by the Reds out of high school in 1988, but he elected to go to Wichita State University rather than sign with them. It turned out to be a good decision, as it bumped his draft stock up so much that the Phillies took him 10th overall in 1991, ahead of such players who went later in the round like Manny Ramírez, Shawn Green, Cliff Floyd and, of course, Doug Glanville.

Green got a cup of coffee with the team during the magical 1993 season; then he spent all of 1994 at Triple-A. It wasn't a good year, as Green posted a ghastly 5.56 ERA with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It looked like he had "bust" written all over him. But then, for whatever reason, the Phillies decided to stick him in their rotation at the beginning of the late-starting 1995 season.

Green's first six starts were fairly shaky, but he shut out the Dodgers in late May and went on quite a heater for a while after. Beginning with the outing before the shutout, Green put together nine straight quality starts to run his record to 8-4 with a 2.81 ERA. His impressive run earned him an All-Star selection, where he managed to strike out Kirby Puckett as part of a scoreless inning. The stage was set for Green to follow up with a big second half, but it turned into an abject disaster.

In 12 appearances (11 starts) after the All-Star break, Green didn't win a single game, posting a 10.68 ERA over 44 2/3 innings. As a result of the implosion, his final line in 1995 showed an 8-9 record, a 5.31 ERA, and a 1.59 WHIP, one of the grizzliest season outputs that any All-Star has ever posted.

Worse still, Green was having arm troubles that led to him missing all of 1996. He'd go on to post poor results for the Phillies in 1997 and 1998, then never appeared in another major league game after undergoing multiple elbow and shoulder surgeries. At least we'll always have those five weeks in 1995 to look back on fondly.

Robert Person, 2001

Full credit to guys like Robert Person, who were long shots to ever make the majors to begin with but ended up fashioning a career out of it.

He was a pretty unknown commodity when the Phillies pried him out of Toronto in 1999 for the hefty price of Paul Spoljaric, and the Phils decided to make him a rotation regular to see what he could offer. The results were promising, as Person went 10-5 with a 4.27 ERA with the team that year, locking down his rotation spot for the 2000 Phillies.

That season was so bad that it was fun, but Person more than did his part by going a very respectable 9-7 with a career-best 3.63 ERA. That didn't end up being his standout campaign, however, as he had some tricks up his sleeve for 2001. His first half was middling, but from July onward, Person went 9-2 with a 3.58 ERA to become the club's most dependable starter as they made a surprise run at a playoff berth. He ended the year with a 15-7 record and a 4.19 ERA. Person even cranked a pair of home runs at the plate in 2001, although his epic two-homer game actually came the following season.

Unfortunately for Person and the Phils, he couldn't build on his 2001 campaign, going just 4-5 during a 2002 season that was cut in half by injuries. He became a free agent at that point, signed with the Red Sox, appeared in seven games in 2003, and then never returned to the majors.

Domonic Brown, 2013

You knew it was coming.

A 20th-round selection by the Phils in 2006, Brown performed well all throughout the minor league system, generating some real hype before he even arrived in the majors. The Phillies became so enamored with him that they reportedly wouldn't even consider including him in a trade for Roy Halladay.

Finally, in 2010, Brown arrived in the bigs, playing in a reserve role down the stretch for that powerhouse club which somehow fizzled out in the NLCS. 2011 would be Brown's first real shot, but fate had other ideas, as he broke his wrist in spring training. It sapped his power almost entirely, and he only appeared in 56 games that year. In 2012, a variety of other injuries limited him to 56 games with the Phillies once again. Hope was starting to flag, but 2013 would be a different story.

Finally healthy and given a starting role right out of the gate, Brown had a so-so April, but he became otherworldly in May. Across 28 games, he collected 12 home runs and 25 RBI to earn two NL Player of the Week awards and NL Player of the Month honors. If you expand this timeframe to include the tail end of April and the first week of June, Brown had a 39-game stretch where he hit .325 with 17 home runs and 39 RBI.

It was, quite simply, one of the greatest six-week heaters in team history, and Brown ended up being selected as an All-Star. By the time the Midsummer Classic hit, however, Brown had already slowed down notably. And following the break, he was downright dismal. He put up a respectable .270 average the rest of the way, but he collected just four home runs and 16 RBI over 44 games in the second half while battling more injuries. His final line of 27 home runs and 83 RBI was extremely disappointing, considering how good he had been for a quarter of the season.

Brown's struggles continued in 2014, as he appeared in a career-high 144 games but hit just .235 with 10 home runs and 63 RBI. In a last-ditch effort to get him going, the Phillies started Brown in the minors in 2015, but it made little difference when he came back up, as he hit just .228 over 63 games with five home runs. He was dropped from the club at the end of the season, and he never made it back to the majors.

It's also notable that Brown had the most ridiculous but appropriate end to a career in Philadelphia sports history, as he misplayed a bloop down the line into an inside-the-park home run by flying into the stands and suffering an injury/sheer embarrassment that kept him from ever appearing in another MLB game. Incidentally, this happened in Aaron Nola's ninth career start, making it seem both forever ago and somehow still tangentially related to the current team.

We are all still shaking our heads.

Aaron Altherr, 2017

One of just 10 German-born players to appear in MLB this century, Aaron Altherr was a late draft pick by the Phillies in 2009 who worked his way up slowly through the system before making his debut in the middle of the 2014 season, playing in a pair of games. He'd get some spotty MLB looks over the next two seasons while missing some time with injuries; then he saw playing time right from the start in 2017.

Bumping between all three outfield positions, Altherr got extremely hot in May, hitting .300 with six home runs and 22 RBI for the month. He was inconsistent for the rest of the campaign and missed a few weeks with another injury, but the end results were pretty decent: .272 with 19 home runs and 65 RBI.

It was enough to afford him everyday at-bats for 2018, but he struggled mightily, slipped into a reserve role, and was demoted when he was hitting just .171 in late July. Altherr resurfaced for the final month of the season but, aside from a two-homer, five-RBI game, did nothing at the plate to inspire any confidence.

For some reason, Altherr hung onto a roster spot to start 2019, but the Phillies finally cut him loose after he went 1-for-29 over the first month-plus. The Giants claimed him, he played one game for them, then he was cut again and claimed by the Mets. He'd yo-yo between the big club and Triple-A for the rest of the year, became a free agent after the season, and never made it back to the majors.

Altherr was like an even more extreme version of John Mayberry, Jr., who you may have expected to see on this list as well. But we left Mayberry off since we recently covered him in celebration of his 40th birthday. For a brief time, the Phillies looked like they had a real player in Altherr, but aside from part of that 2017 season, he just wasn't major-league material.

Altherr is still kicking around baseball, though, even winning a championship in Korea with the NC Dinos in 2020. Altherr had opportunities in Philadelphia; he just couldn't take advantage of them.