We’ve reached the 14-year anniversary of a pivotal Reds-Indians trade that was hardly a headline-grabber at the time. It was on April 7, 2006, that the Reds acquired 24-year-old second baseman Brandon Phillips from the Indians for a player to be named later. That player turned into right-hander Jeff Stevens, whom Cincinnati sent to Cleveland in June of that year.
Phillips entered the pro ranks as a high draft selection of the Montreal Expos, who picked him in the second round (No. 57) in 1999. He was later part of a Montreal-Cleveland deal that had a massive impact, as the Expos sent Phillips, Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Lee Stevens to the Indians for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew. Sizemore and Lee became stars in Cleveland, but Phillips didn’t amount to much there in 462 combined plate appearances from 2002-05.
Phillips spent the majority of his final season as a member of the organization with the Indians’ then-Triple-A team in Buffalo, where he put up a .734 on-base plus slugging percentage. Unimpressed, the Indians and former general manager Mark Shapiro soon gave up on Phillips. That proved to be a mistake, at least when you consider what they received for Phillips. Stevens never even pitched for the franchise, instead throwing a combined 37 1/3 innings with the Cubs from 2009-11 after the Indians traded him as part of a deal for utilityman Mark DeRosa (notably, that transaction also saw Chris Archer head to Chicago). While DeRosa was effective for the Indians in ’09, that was his lone season with the club. The team later sent him to to St. Louis in a trade for reliever Chris Perez.
Perez had his moments in Cleveland, but they don’t match up to Phillips’ impact in Cincinnati. “Dat Dude” was a productive Red from the jump and eventually became a franchise icon – someone who was instrumental in breaking their 14-year playoff drought in 2009. The Reds went on to earn two more playoff berths while Phillips was in their uniform. His long tenure with the franchise concluded in February 2017 with a trade to the Braves, but not before Phillips racked up a laundry list of personal accomplishments. As a member of the Reds, Phillips made three All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves and batted .279/.325/.429 with 191 home runs, 194 stolen bases and 28.1 wins above replacement over 6,899 plate appearances. He’s currently eighth in Reds history in games played (1,614) and PA and 10th in hits (1,774), runs scored (877) and total bases (2,722), to name just a few key statistics.
Phillips, now 38 years old, hasn’t played in the majors since 2018. But he’ll always be a part of the Reds’ rich history, and his acquisition was no doubt one of the shining moments of former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky’s stint. It’s also another bit of proof that you shouldn’t sleep on any transaction, no matter how minor it may seem at the time.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I loved BP..really underrated in my opinion..I always wanted him to retire as a Red
At his peak pretty much the best second basemen in the National League.
Utley was better for some time and then Phillips for maybe two seasons
let’s not forget Brandon Phillips also cost Jason LaRue his career
That was Cueto, right?
It was Cueto. Yadi started it by jawjacking at Phillips.
Yeah, I dont think so. Pretty sure Phillips started that with his bat tapping the shin pads deal. Not saying Yadi didn’t get right up in his face, but Phillips was a talker his whole career. One of those players you love if he’s on your team and hate if he isn’t.
yeah it was. but Brandon Phillips was the one talking all the crap that started that brawl
Okay, there’s a difference. Starting a brawl is one thing and endlessly kicking someone in the head is another.
yadi acted like the punk he is. Phillips always tapped the catchers pads. yadi was the only one that got mad. cueto was defending himself in the pile. I was watching on tv and my dad was sitting behind home.
To be fair, Larue didn’t have much of a career…
Phillips called the Cardinals “whiney bitches” the day before, then tapped Molina’s shin guards the next day as if to say, “We’re good, right?” Yadi was having none of that, and a brawl started. Cueto was forced up against the netting and started kicking (while wearing cleats!) and gave LaRue a concussion, which ultimately led to LaRue retiring.
no him not being able to hit ever is why he retired
Concussions can have effects that last years. LaRue wasn’t a good hitter – many catchers aren’t – but don’t try to use that as the only reason he retired.
I thought the Cards would give him a go once he became a Free Agent
lol troll
??? I thought he would want to play with his friend Yadi
Ignore him D0m. He’s an Indians’ fan. His opinions and comments don’t matter.
if you don’t understand the level of trolling he’s doing, you’re a bit special
Sure the Indians would definitely have rather had Phillips given how his career turned out but… they actually didn’t make out all that bad when you look at the final result of subsequent trades. I mean they essentially ended up getting a guy who had 132 saves for them for a 2B who really hadn’t done much for them in the majors or minors. Yeah he wound up being a cornerstone of the Reds for nearly a decade but essentially trading a 2B ‘prospect’ for what turned out to be Perez and 132 saves wasn’t actually that bad of a deal.
Nah. It was a bad trade. No spin zone here, dude.
I’m somewhere in between agreeing and disagreeing. I agree with the train of thought behind Phillips ending up as Chris Perez. When Perez wasn’t getting dope shipped to his house via UPS, he had a pretty decent run as closer. Phillips definitely would have been a big gap filler at 2B for all those years, but I doubt he would’ve slotted in financially with Cleveland like he did in Cincy.
To me, Phillips is just a big part of the haul the Indians got for Colon. It’s hard to judge whether the Tribe was dumb for trading him. Sometimes things just don’t work out. Whether it’s money, options, or coaching. Last year, everyone looked at Gio Urshela and thought, “Why’d the Indians let him go when they could have him, Lindor, Ramirez, and Santana on the infield?” But Urhsela was a constant underperformer with the bat, and they had brought him up and down so many times that he was running out of options. Yandy Diaz is another one., although I’m a firm believer that Jake Bauers will never develop into a starting-caliber player.
Something really crazy about that Colon to the Expos trade: Colon is the last active player in that trade.
His last MLB game was 9/22/18. Phillips appeared in a game on 9/30/2018, so he was the last to play in that trade, but Colon hasn’t retired.
Phillips hasn’t retired yet either. He played a few games for his brother in an Indy league and then played in Mexico. Would definitely pick up the phone if a team came calling.
The situation around Sizemore is one of the more unfortunate ones in recent history
Tremendous talent. Had all the tools and showed in during his time in the game.
Was surprise about him not being able to return and at least become a productive player.
Jerry!
Jerry! Hello!
Bartolo is the best baseball player to ever walk on this earth. (For the memes)
Loved Brandon Phillips. Obviously, this was a steal of a trade.
Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee for Bartolo is the real nugget here. That trio combined for 10 All-Star games. Too bad injuries killed Sizemore’s career or we may have been talking about him as a future Hall of Famer.
There was talk of dismantling the expos and I believe twins after that season. The expos went all in and paid whatever prospect cost to get it done because at that point they thought there would be no next year
Not all the way true.
They were going to move them to PR. Next season they played half their home games in PR.
It was their last chance in Montreal and MLB wanted them to do something to motivated the team.
Their owner was to take over the Marlins.
The Marlins owner was going to take over the Angels
MLB was going to take over the Expos.
2/3 of that happened. John Henry wanted to be able to keep his roster and move it to Anaheim. Beckett and Miguel Cabrera. MLB said no. Henry ended up buying the Red Sox.
You could make a case that all three were better than colon if Sizemore were healthy.
Colon just has career length really I don’t think he gets his cy young if that year happens now
Colon was a hard thrower early in his career and had great stuff.
His career is amazing. It was almost over when he lost a lot of velocity but was able to reinvent himself.
In 2002 Colon was one of the better pitchers in the AL. Considered an ace
Definitely a very underrated player. I’ve always thought he was really stealthily good along with guys like Howie Kendrick and to a lesser degree Aaron Hill. who all became established around the same time in the Majors. If it wasn’t for his surname I feel like I’d be saying similar things about Cavan Biggio in about 15 years.
That was a horrible deal. You cant go multiple deals and years later and say see it worked out.
That’s like the reds going see Frank Robinson was done a decade after I dealt him see we were right
Man, I know the Indians had a good minor league system in the 90’s, but I’m not sure anything can match the stars that Montreal developed through the entire decade. Its such a shame that the Expos could never keep all of those stars.
Below average offensively, stellar defense. Highlight real machine
The Reds cracked the playoffs in 2010, not 2009.
I forgot about Grady Sizemore
God that Chris Archer trade is so bad for the Pirates.
It really has been and it’s not even just because Archer has been total dogcrap for the Pirates, it’s also because Meadows and Glasnow have been key contributors for the Rays.
Horrible deal to give BP away for a bag of bp balls. To have that much talent and Wedge/Shapiro couldn’t see it and keep him was inexcusable. Shapiro hung his hat on that trade, but they truly lucked out IMO and by allowing BP to excel elsewhere negated much of it.
I recall Phillips being a pain in the butt for a Cleveland which was part of the reason for the trade
I know it didn’t help that he had the infamous Milton Bradley as a mentor early in his career. My point was it’s bad on their part that they didn’t realize the talent they had and gave him away for so little because he wasn’t enough to even make the roster as a backup.
Wedge and Phillips just didn’t get along. It probably didn’t help things that they handed the starting job to BP because it was the easy solution far too early in his development. He absolutely needed a change of scenery and the Reds were the right fit.
defense is baseball died the day he left Cincinnati. He was one of the best defensive 2ed basemen in history. Bat was pretty good too. Got robbed on so many gold gloves. No one else was even close.