Philadelphia Phillies: stealing Bobby Abreu on expansion draft day
The Philadelphia Phillies did not have a pick in the 1997 expansion draft, but they may have walked away with the best player available in Bobby Abreu.
Leading into the 1997 MLB expansion draft teams knew they were going to lose some good players. The Philadelphia Phillies were no exception to this. However, they may have walked away with the best players once all the picks were made. Bobby Abreu was just one of the hundreds of players who were available on draft day, and three teams later, he had a new home.
The Houston Astros kind of had their hands tied with a young Bobby Abreu, he had the service time and even if he was on the 40-man roster he was still available to go in the draft. Their only option, buy out his arbitration years making him too expensive to select.
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The Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected Abreu withe the sixth overall pick in the first round. They held onto Abreu for about an hour and then moved him to Philadelphia for Kevin Stocker. Kevin Stocker! Stocker was a light-hitting shortstop who averaged one home run every 131 at-bats and was a career .262 hitter at the time.
Who were the winners or the losers of the Bobby Abreu expansion day draft process?
One could argue the Astros didn’t know what they had with Abreu. Never mind he was a .300 hitter in the minor leagues prior to getting a cup of coffee at the big-league level. Buying out arbitration years of players really wasn’t a thing in 1997, the Astros are off the hook.
The Devil Rays are the true losers. Stocker hit .250 with 9 homers in three years with the Rays.
The Phillies are the true winners. Not only did they rid themselves of Kevin Stocker (it’d be another four years before the Phillies employed a shortstop who could hit for power, thank you Jimmy Rollins), they acquired the perennial .300 hitter Abreu. Bobby Abreu would be a two-time All-Star in Philadelphia, hitting .303 with 195 home runs over 9 years with the club.
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Bobby Abreu had a very respectable career in the majors and all he needed was a shot to prove himself. The Phillies gave him that chance, and he rewarded them.