Here’s an interesting story from MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis.
In 1993, the Phillies had the No. 4 pick in the MLB. The Phillies knew that the Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels, the two teams ahead of them at No. 2 and 3 respectively, were targeting college pitching. The Seattle Mariners, who had the No. 1 pick, were torn. Manager Lou Piniella wanted to draft for need and take Darren Dreifort, the best college pitcher available. Seattle’s scouting director, the late Roger Jongewaard, wanted a highly-touted shortstop out of Westminster Christian High School named Alex Rodriguez.
Jongewaard informed Phillies national crosschecker Marti Wolever of this divide in a phone call before the draft. Wolever, who knew Jongewaard from their days in Detroit, emerged from the conversation with enough confidence to tell his boss, Phillies scouting director Mike Arbuckle: “I think we’re getting Alex Rodriguez.”
“A-Rod” never got that far. He was drafted first overall by Seattle. A run on college pitchers ensued after that and the Phillies ended up with Old Dominion’s Wayne Gomes.
The reason why this story is being brought up this weekend has to do with what the Phillies did with their second-round pick that year. Philadelphia ended up taking a risk on a high school third baseman from Jasper, Indiana named Scott Rolen.
He’ll be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
It was a risk that paid off tremendously. At the time, teams believed Rolen would forgo signing and become a two-way basketball and baseball star at the University of Georgia. Wolever credits area scout Scott Trcka for convincing Rolen to sign with the Phillies.
“A lot of guys thought that basketball commitment was solid so it would be a wasted pick,” Wolever told Callis. “But that’s where Scott Trcka was so good. Scott would not give up on him. Without him, this thing doesn’t get done.”
In 2023, a team probably wouldn’t be able to sign two prospects equivalent to Alex Rodriguez in the first and Scott Rolen in the second and stay within their allocated bonus pool. But in 1993, the Phillies could have had an all-time draft haul if things went a little differently.
Rodriguez, who hit 696 home runs in his career, spent the first seven years of his career in Seattle from 1994 to 2000. He made four All-Star teams and finished top three in AL MVP voting twice during his time in Seattle. A-Rod left Seattle to sign with the Texas Rangers for 10 years and $252 million in February 2001.
Even if Rodriguez fell to No. 4, the pre-Citizens Bank Park late 90s, early 2000s Phillies ownership group was never going to pay up to keep Rodriguez. The Phillies team that would have been around him was never good enough to reach the postseason and his contract demands would have led to an ugly exit.
In other words, he would have had the exact same Phillies fate as Rolen. Steroids will probably keep A-Rod out of the Hall for good, but if he did make it with the Phillies being the team he started his career with, there wouldn’t be many Phillies fans from the Delaware Valley making the four-and-a-half hour drive to Cooperstown to see the induction ceremony.
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