February 05, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports
Chase Utley is hands down the best second baseman in Phillies franchise history.
Over the last few winters, we've passed the time by ranking things. We ranked every Eagles player, and Sixers player by position while also throwing in some other lists that weren't quite as fun.
For the next two weeks, leading up to pitchers and catchers reporting to Clearwater for the 2024 Phillies, we decided to take a look at each position in the Phillies storied 100+ year history and come up with a list of the all-time greats at each position.
We're going to limit our lists to 10 (with a few extra mentions) in part because there were more than 100 players to play second in at least one game for the Phillies.
At second base had a few requirements. The player had to have started at the position for at least three seasons in Philadelphia and their statistical and cultural impact were both weighed when making these rankings.
The Phillies have had some really great second basemen in their history, many of whom are borderline Hall of Famers who never got that special call.
Before we dive into our top 10, here's a look at a handful of 2B-men that either didn't qualify, or make the cut talent-wise:
| Player | Games | Notes |
| Bryson Stott | 278 | 5.3 WAR |
| Marlon Anderson | 479 | .266/.313/.383 |
| Mariano Duncan | 406 | 1994 All-Star |
| Joe Morgan | 123 | '83 Pennant |
| Cookie Rojas | 880 | 1965 All-Star |
| Tony Taylor | 1,669 | 1960 All-Star |
| Bert Neihoff | 408 | .244/.290/.334 |
| Emil Verban | 348 | 1947 All-Star |
No one above is really a threat to knock off a top 10 pick below. To our list:
Shamus Clancy: One of the best pure baseball players of the late '00s and early '10s, Utley was a winner who provided major pop as an up-the-middle player, reliable defense and the smartest base-running tactics around. Injuries derailed what coulda/shoulda/woulda been a slam-dunk Hall of Fame career given his peak, but, hey, he still may have a shot of getting in anyway.
In what may be the best play in franchise history, Utley's "fake to first, throw home" in the Phils' clinching game of the 2008 World Series sums up his whole play style:
World F-----g Champs, indeed.
Shamus: This dude could rake. While having more success during longer stints with the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Naps (which were named after him!), he spent his first five big league seasons with the Phillies. Lajoie led the sport in slugging percentage (.569) and total bases (310) in 1897 and then doubles (43) and RBI (127) in 1898.
Nick Tricome: From his first full season in 1984 and up through 1987, Samuel hit double digits in home runs, doubles, triples, and stolen bases with each year. He was lightning on the base paths, which created all kinds of headaches for opposing batteries, especially in '84 when he stole a staggering 72 bags.
Evan Macy: What a three-year stretch Cash had. In addition to nearly batting .300 cumulatively, he also led the entire majors in at bats every year he was in Philly. The organization got a pretty good return when they traded starter Ken Brett for him in 1973, but they chose to let him walk after three All-Star campaigns and top 16 finished for MVP in all his seasons.
Nick: A reliable bat, a solid glove, and an absolute tank in the do-or-die Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS against Nolan Ryan and the Astros.
Evan: I am not here to make a case for Hernandez being an All-Time great Phillie. He was solid, sure, but his placement as No. 6 is surprising to me. However, look at his numbers compared to the No. 5 on our list in Trillo. He has the same batting average and a higher on base and slugging percentage, over a longer period of time. He generated 10.1 WAR in seven Philly seasons and Trillo had 6.8 over four seasons. And yet Trillo made two All-Star games and won all that hardware. It helps to play on a good team — and Hernandez never did that.
Evan: Franz Otto Knabe was called Dutch and was born in 1884. He was a really good second baseman for his era, collecting top 22 voting finishes for MVP three times as a Phillie. His career earnings for 11 seasons as a major league baseball player were just over $42,000 but that's not my favorite part of his baseball reference page. After being "acquired" and "signed" and "released" several times by several teams, he apparently "Jumped from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Baltimore Terrapins," via BR's transactional records. He jumped!
Shamus: For a franchise that has over 11,000 losses in its largely undistinguished history, focusing on the little moments is important. Few little slap hits were more crucial for the Phils over the decades than Segura's in St. Louis during the 2022 Wild Card Series.
Facing a 2-1 deficit in Game 1 of that series, a prayer of a hit from Segura made it to right field, allowing two Phillies to score, giving the team a 3-2 lead and propelling them to win the series and make a run to the Fall Classic:
Segura celebrating with a leap as he made his way to first as the ball broke through the infield was emblematic of the incredible vibes that Fightins squad had.
Nick: A quick bat for those 90s Phillies clubs who always seemed to have a triple spring loaded when they needed it. Case in point: Game 6 of the '93 NLCS.
He's also one of the very few to have an unassisted triple play to his name.
Shamus: Who can forget Bill Hallman? Well, literally no one is who alive in this world was around when he played in Philly, but still. Hallman had the distinction of being the only player to improve their batting average in nine consecutive seasons, going from .206 with the Philadelphia Quakers in 1888 to .320 with the Phillies in 1896. He had nowhere to go but up!
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