Philadelphia Phillies: 15 best trades in franchise history
By Tim Boyle
2) Best Philadelphia Phillies trade: Curt Schilling from the Astros.
This is the last mention of the Astros. One has to wonder: have they ever made a good trade?
On April 2, 1992, they made another bad one. This time, it was sending Curt Schilling to the Phillies for Jason Grimsley.
Nobody in baseball history may be involved in as many good/bad trades as Schilling. In 1988, he was traded with Brady Anderson to the Baltimore Orioles for Mike Boddicker. In 1991, Baltimore traded him to Houston along with Steve Finley and Pete Harnisch for Glenn Davis. Okay, so the Astros have won some trades.
Even the trade which inevitably sent Schilling away from the Phillies to the Arizona Diamondbacks was poor. Then there was the deal which sent him to his final destination: back to the Red Sox.
Not too many details need to be divulged to understand what a great move this was for the Phillies. Schilling had only started a handful of games before joining Philadelphia. He pitched as a starter and reliever in 1992 with a ton of success. He wouldn’t look back. Through the middle of the 2000 season, he was the ace of the Phillies staff.
One of the few bright spots on the Phillies in the late 1990s, Schilling managed to have back-to-back 300 strikeout campaigns in 1997 and 1998. It was an achievement no other Phillies player will probably ever have again.
Although he is best remembered by many for what he did with the Diamondbacks or Red Sox, he won 101 of his 216 victories with the Phillies and had a 3.35 ERA with the club—far better than the 3.95 he had with Boston and only a little higher than the 3.14 with Arizona.