If any organization is around long enough, they are going to make some trades that look terrible after the fact and the Philadelphia Phillies are no exception. To be clear, there have been some absolutely amazing deals along the way as well with Steve Carlton, Roy Halladay, Curt Schilling (more on him in a bit), and Lenny Dykstra come to mind.
It does make us wonder which trades have risen to the summit of Mount Dumpster Fire when it comes to trades and that can be a bit tricky especially when you look at trades from the last few years. Some of them may look fine right now, but five years from now some low level prospect that got thrown into a trade turns into an absolute stud. As a result, for these rankings we are going to most eschew the more recent moves and leave the hyperbole about most very modern moves to lowly comment section trolls.
The worst trades in Phillies franchise history
There is no science to these rankings, either. They aren’t ranked by WAR gained/lost or anything like that. Especially with earlier trades, comparing moves over the decades is like comparing apples to oranges as we don’t have the same level of info about players that we do now. In the end, these are all educated guesses. Yes, there are going to be differences of opinion on where trades should rank and there are going to be moves that some think should be on the list. In the end, this is a thought exercise and not definitive in any way, shape, or form.
Enough of the disclaimers that won’t stop people from getting mad online anyways, here are 10 of the worst trades in Phillies franchise history.