Philly Front Office

On June 2, 1989 the San Diego Padres traded 28-year-old John Kruk to the Phillies along with Randy Ready¹ in exchange for Chris James, a player you’ve probably never heard of. How did the Phillies get so lucky to land such a legend, in his prime, for nothing?

The John Kruk story starts strange gets stranger. He was drafted twice in the 3rd round in 1981 out of Allegheny Junior College of Maryland. Wait, huh? How do you get drafted twice? Well, it’s even weirder than you think because if you look up the 1981 MLB Draft in the 3rd round the Padres selected Tony Gwynn, not John Kruk. Apparently back then, there were other drafts besides the regular Rule 4 draft and the Rule 5. There was also a January draft that was for high schoolers who graduated early, college dropouts, and junior college players like Kruk. That’s how he was drafted initially by the Pirates, only he didn’t sign. Well, if you don’t sign at this point, there was apparently also a secondary draft. That’s when the Padres picked up John Martin Kruk.

Friday, July 11 at 9:40p – Ranger Suarez vs Ryan Bergery (R)
Saturday, July 12 at 7:35p – Zack Wheeler vs Yu Darvish (R)
Sunday, July 13 at 4:10p – Cristopher Sanchez vs Nick Pivetta (R)

at Petco Park in San Diego, CA

It took Kruk 5 years to make the majors, making his debut for the Padres in 1986. He had a solid rookie season that even garnered a 7th place finish for Rookie of the Year. He really broke out the next season with a .313 average, 20 dingers, and an .894 OPS. That’s a star making sophomore year.

Hold up, you indicated he was traded for basically nothing in 1989. How is that possible after that debut?

Shortly after the 1987 season, Kruk rented a house with a childhood friend named Roy Plummer. Plummer paid for everything and Kruk never questioned it until the FBI paid him a visit at Spring Training 1988. Apparently, Plummer and their other roommate were committing armed robberies. Plummer thought Kruk turned him in to the police and Kruk spent 1988 scared out of his mind that Plummer was out to get him.² Plummer was eventually apprehended, but not before Kruk tanked the whole season. He hit .241 and most of his counting statistics were cut in half (he still struck out less than he walked though). This put him in the doghouse with the manager³ and San Diego was now looking to move on from Kruk for anything. He barely played to start the 1989 season. Then Mike Schmidt retired.

??? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, all of a sudden the Phillies needed a 3rd baseman, and they called the floundering Padres about Randy Ready. Ready was coming off a huge 1987 season where he .309, walked a ton, and had 5.8 WAR. His 1988 season was solid, but nothing like the previous year. He was good but expendable. The Padres wanted to be out of the Kruking business so bad that they threw him into trade talks as well. The return was Chris James. James had himself a promising rookie season in Philadelphia in 1987, but 1988 was down, and he fell off a cliff to start the 1989 season. Still, the Padres thought he had promise I guess (or they just really hated Kruk). How lopsided was this deal? Well, James was bad at the plate and one of the worst outfielders in baseball. He lasted one season in San Diego and accumulated -1.4 WAR in 87 games. Ready had 2.5 replacement level years in Philadelphia before moving on. Kruk though, he is still going strong.

Kruk hit safely in his first 6 games for the Phillies and never looked back, hitting .331 in 81 games. Over his next 5 seasons with the Phillies, Kruk was an on-base machine who always hovered around .300 with OPS’s regularly in the mid .800s. Kruk would go on to make 3 All-Star teams and receive MVP votes in 3 seasons. His finest season though was obviously in 1993. That was a team that has a firm place in all of our hearts, and Kruk was at the center. He hit .316 with 33 doubles, 111 walks, and a .905 OPS, leading the Phillies to the World Series.

Now Kruk is obviously our beloved broadcaster and team ambassador. He is one of the few local heroes who is respected and loved by the national sports scene just as much as he is at home. Can you believe that none of this would be possible had he had a better taste in roommates 40 years ago?⁴

1. Short list of best names of all time. A professional wrestler wouldn’t even use that name because it would be too on the nose. ↩︎
2. Baseball star John Kruk one of many fooled by bank robber | Special Reports | wvgazettemail.com ↩︎
3. In a coincidental turn of events, the previous San Diego manager was Larry Bowa. He was fired to start 1989 in favor of Jack McKeon ↩︎
4. Apparently, they were only roommates for a few weeks before and after Kruk played winter ball that year. As an epilogue to that part of the story, apparently the guy sent Kruk a letter from prison apologizing to him for what happened. ↩︎