[Disclaimer: Let me start by apologizing for no Rangers preview last week. I was on vacation but started writing about the lost 2010 Cliff Lee season and it was not fun. I just skipped it.]
Do you know who the best player to play for both the Phillies and Reds? Yes, you do. No, it is not Pete Rose, but you’re close. It’s Joe Morgan. That’s not really fair though since Morgan only played for the Phillies for one season (I’ll write about him next year). Morgan’s greatness was more for the Reds and Astros, even if he did lead the Phillies to the 1983 World Series (along with a few other former Reds like Rose and Tony Perez). The real best player for both teams is Eppa Rixey. You don’t know him. He pitched from 1912 to 1933 and is the only player to accumulate 10+ WAR for both teams. I’m sorry, I am not Justin Klugh and Trevor Strunk (HELLO) and this is not The Dirty Inning. That means you are getting Scott Rolen, hooray! Hooray? Oh that’s right…
Rolen famously did not end his career in Philadelphia, forcing his way out of town in a protracted huff and landing with the hated Cardinals. On July 29, 2002 the Phillies picked up Placido Polanco, Bud Smith, and Mike Timlin for Rolen and a guy named Doug Nickle. That wasn’t the end of Rolen’s travels though. Despite putting up 25 WAR and winning a World Series in 6 seasons in St. Louis, they traded him to Toronto in 2008. We don’t care about that though. After 2 seasons with the Blue Jays, they sent him to the Reds at the 2009 trade deadline (the same trade deadline where the Phillies picked up Cliff Lee). He would finish out his career in Cincinatti.
Let’s start with his trade to the Reds. Essentially, they got him for nothing. The 3 players produced 1.9 WAR in their time with Toronto before all were released. Those players were Zack Stewart, Josh Roenicke, and Edwin Encarnacion. Wait a second, I remember Encarnacion being good for Toronto. What gives? That’s true, he was. However, the Blue Jays released Encarnacion after 1.5 seasons. He was then picked up by the Athletics who released him a month later. It was then that he signed back with the Blue Jays for $2.5m. It wasn’t until this second completely separate stint with Toronto that he broke out with five 4-ish WAR seasons and over 200 HRs. This isn’t about Encarnacion though. It’s about Rolen. So, what did Cincinatti get for nothing?
Down the stretch in 2009, Rolen was pretty good. He played his usual great defense and hit a solid .270/.364/.401. They weren’t as good as his Toronto numbers, but fine nonetheless. The Reds missed the playoffs though and finished 78-84. In the offseason, the Reds signed Rolen to a very strange extension. By agreeing to 2 extra years and $13m, Rolen also agreed that his $11m salary for 2010 would be converted partially to a signing bonus with $6m to be paid that season and the other $5m to be spread across the remainder of the contract with no interest. I mean, that’s a bad deal, but that’s just Rolen probably not wanting to move again considering he grew up in Indiana, about 3 hours away.
In his first full season with the Reds, Rolen was vintage Rolen. He hit .285/.358/.497 and put up 4.1 WAR leading the Reds to the playoffs this time. Their first round opponent? The Philadelphia Phillies. Thankfully the Good Guys swept the Cincinatti Rolens including getting no-hit by Roy Halladay in Game 1 and we didn’t have to hear any media nonsense. For the series, Rolen was terrible, getting 1 hit in 11 chances and committing 2 errors.
We didn’t know it then, but that playoff series was the beginning of the end for maybe the top 3rd baseman of a generation. The next two seasons were injury ravaged and he only ended up playing about half the games. Even when he was in, he was no longer the effective middle of the order bat he had been for over a decade. His average, which was regularly .280+ was down in the .240s with little power and considerably more strikeouts. Though he did not officially retire right away, he never played again after 2012.
For his career, Rolen finished with 70 WAR and was just inducted into the Hall of Fame. Most of that WAR came in Philly (29.2) but he went in to Cooperstown as a Cardinal where he won the World Series. It’s understandable. Afterall, it’s not like things ended well with the Phillies. The weird thing about Rolen’s legacy in Philly is that for the most part, he was right. It wasn’t so much that HE wanted a big contract, he wanted the Phillies to spend on the rest of the roster which they refused to do. He wanted to win and wanted the Phillies to act like the big market they were reluctant to acknowledge being. After dealing him, the team got the message. Soon after the trade, the team opened Citizen’s Bank Park and started spending. They began climbing the payroll ranks and are now obviously a major player in baseball.
The Phillies won the World Series in 2008 and contended the next few years without him. The crazy part though is that the Phillies did all that basically without a steady 3rd baseman. Pedro Feliz was fun, but he was never close to Rolen. The team brought back Placido Polanco in 2010 to play 3rd, but they could just as easily had Rolen at the 2009 deadline for what the Reds paid. I guess neither side was ready to make up.
One last question. For which team did Rolen receive more MVP votes, the Phillies or Reds? In 1998 and 2001, Rolen received a total of 4 MVP votes despite 6.7 and 5.6 WAR seasons respectively. In 2010 with the Reds he received 26 votes with only the 4.1 WAR. Typical.
All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference. All salary numbers courtesy of Spotrac.
Philly Front Office 
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