Philly Front Office

At some point in the waning days of Spring Training 2005 it became clear that a Phillies Rule 5 pick wasn’t going to make the roster. As is procedure, he was offered back to the Dodgers, the team he was plucked from that winter. They said, “no thank you” and he joined the Phillies AAA club, and no one really noticed. After all, this wasn’t the first time LA let Shane Victorino go. Originally drafted by the Dodgers in 1999, he was selected in the 2003 Rule 5 draft as well. At age 22, Victorino made his major league debut for the Padres. He clearly wasn’t ready as his OPS+ was a 14 (with 100 being league average) after 36 games. The Padres had to give him back to the Dodgers who kept him buried in the minors. Now 20 years after the Dodgers didn’t know what to do with him, Shane Victorino is one of the most beloved Phillies of all time.

Monday, Sept. 15 at 10:10p – Ranger Suarez vs Emmet Sheehan (R)
Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 10:10p – Cristopher Sanchez vs Shohei Ohtani (R)
Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 10:10p – Jesus Luzardo vs Blake Snell (L)

3 Game Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA

I remember the first time I even heard of Shane Victorino. Maybe I had seen him pinch hit in an earlier game, but he hadn’t left any kind of mark. On September 22nd, 2005, though, Victorino came in and delivered a 3 run HR off Tim Hudson, his first as a pro. It was then that I learned that he had been the International League MVP that season. Who was this guy? In 120 games for Scranton Wilkes-Barre, Victorino hit .310 with 18 HRs and 16 triples. He was almost 25 at that point and not on any prospect lists, so I don’t think anyone knew what we had.

Victorino made the team out of Spring Training and never looked back. He received spot starts but was mostly a late inning defensive replacement and pinch hitter until the trade deadline when the Phillies gave away incumbent right fielder Bobby Abreu. Abreu and Victorino could not be any different as ballplayers. From then on, Victorino was the everyday right fielder and went on a tear. He hit 6 triples and batted .307 the rest of the way all while playing better defense than Abreu could ever dream of. The Phillies fell just short in the wild card, but Victorino had arrived.

By 2007, he was playing almost everyday with Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand in the outfield. For me, I was entertained just watching him play baseball regardless of the outcome. As soon as his bat hit the ball, he was off like a rocket. It was especially fun to watch him as a switch hitter when he would hit one down the line. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was thinking 3rd base every time. He was an immediate fan favorite with that hustle and innate showmanship. He even hit a walk off HR on Shane Victorino Hula Bobblehead giveaway night!

Enough foreplay. What he did in the 2008 postseason is forever plastered in the pleasure spot of the brain to all who watched. I’m sure I am probably forgetting some moments along the way, but let’s get to the NLDS against the Brewers. Milwaukee rode future Hall of Famer CC Sabathia down the stretch that year, pitching him basically every 4th day and he delivered the Brewers to the playoffs. With the Phillies winning game 1 at home, Sabathia was tabbed to start Game 2. We knew we were in trouble and things started bad. In the 1st, Brett Myers walked in a run to make it 1-0 but got out of the jam. Victorino doubled in the bottom half but Utley and Howard couldn’t bring him home. Back-to-back doubles tied the game in the 2nd, when Brett Myers came to the plate with 2 outs. The pitcher worked an electrifying 9 pitch walk. Jimmy Rollins followed with a walk of his own to load the bases for our man Shane…

I hadn’t experienced playoff baseball excitement yet as an adult. This inning and Victorino’s grand slam was the biggest Phillies thrill of my life at that point. I don’t think I even realized baseball could get this exciting.¹ We won the series and moved on to face the Dodgers.

Everyone remembers Matt Stairs hitting his pinch-hit go-ahead home run against Jonathan Broxton “deep into the night,” but it was Victorino who had tied the score just two batters earlier with a ball only about a foot over the right field fence and OHHHH were Dodgers fans mad. Not only was it Game 4 and they thought their team was on the verge of tying things up, but Victorino had been a lightning rod that series. In Game 3 with the Dodgers already up big, Hiroki Kuroda threw at Victorino’s head which he very obviously took exception to. After the inning the benches cleared and juiced up Manny Ramirez wanted to fight. Victorino got the last laugh as the Dodgers were eliminated in 5 games and went on to win the World Series.

Victorino spent the next 3.5 years with the Phillies putting up solid seasons one after another. In 2011, while the rest of the offense started its demise, Victorino had his best season with the Phillies and even finished 13th in MVP voting. He had 16 triples that year and finished with an .847 OPS. Sadly, the Phillies traded him to the Dodgers when the bottom fell out in 2012.

Again though, the Dodgers wanted nothing to do with him. They let him go as a free agent that year and Victorino signed with the Red Sox for 3/$39m. He delivered on the contract as the missing piece for that 2013 Red Sox team. His defense was Gold Glove worthy in center at Fenway. His 6 WAR got him some MVP votes and Boston won him his 2nd World Series title.

There’s never too long a time I go without thinking about that grand slam against Sabathia which then brings me to smiling about Shane just being Shane. I loved how he was a walking bottle of lightning that looked like he was ready to take off in any direction at any moment. That generation of Phillies players had more than enough star power for fans to latch on to, but even so, it was guys like Victorino (and Werth and Chooch) that made the 2008 World Series possible. I’ll love him forever for that.

All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference

1. This moment is the Hoskins bat spike of the 2008 World Series run. ↩︎