Bobby Abreu Selected as 2019 Phillies Wall of Fame Inductee

Embed from Getty Images

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Philadelphia Phillies Wall of Fame has enshrined 40 members from the franchise’s history as well as 25 members of the Philadelphia Athletics franchise .

The most recent additions were those of the late Roy Halladay and Pat Gillick last summer.

The Phillies will officially enshrine a 41st Phillie to the wall in 2019 as the team announced that outfielder Bobby Abreu will be the addition for 2019.

Abreu, now 45, spent 18 seasons on major league rosters. Eight and a half of those were with the Phillies.

Abreu began his career with the Houston Astros, but was selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1997 expansion draft. He never played a game with the team, however, as the Phillies sent the Devil Rays Kevin Stocker for Abreu. Stocker went on to play only three more seasons with the Devil Rays before his retirement.

From 1998 to midway through the 2006 season, Abreu slashed .303/.416/.513 with 891 runs, 814 RBIs, 195 home runs and 254 stolen bases. That averages out to about 105 runs, 96 RBIs, 23 home runs and 30 stolen bases per season with the team.

Additionally, Abreu won a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, three NL Player of the Week awards, one NL Player of the Month award and was selected to two All-Star games during his Phillies tenure. He also lead the league in triples (1999), doubles (2002), putouts as a right fielder (2000), double plays as a right fielder (2004) and right fielder assists (1998, 2000) during some of the seasons he spent in Philadelphia.

Of course, he also won the 2005 Home Run Derby just one year before teammate Ryan Howard would do the same in 2006.

Abreu was traded to the Yankees, along with pitcher Cory Lidle, for pitcher Matt Smith and a package of prospects in during the 2006 season.

Smith posted an ERA of 11.25 in 2007 and never played in the Major Leagues again. Of the three prospects, the most notable is Carlos Monasterios who was taken by the Mets in the 2009 Rule 5 Draft and was sold to the Dodgers. He pitched one season with the Dodgers in 2010 but never made it back to the Major Leagues.

The other two prospects were relief pitcher Jesus Sanchez and utility man C.J. Henry. Sanchez never made it past AAA, but he played part of last season with the Lancaster Barnstormers in the Atlantic League. Henry never got past Advanced A ball.

Abreu will be enshrined at the game on Saturday August 3rd and will likely have many of his teammates in attendance as well as the other living members of the Wall of Fame.