Off the bat, this was a horribly orchestrated myriad of moves by Ruben Amaro Jr. from the start. The organization traded several top prospects to Houston to acquire Pence at the deadline in 2011, which included the Domingo Santana fiasco.
For those unfamiliar, Amaro accidentally put Santana on a list of eligible prospects the team could send to Houston as a “player to be named later.”
Just over one year to the day later the Phillies would send their free-swinging outfielder to San Francisco in exchange for two prospects and below-average major league outfielder.
First, a recap of the trade that brought Pence to Philadelphia via the Houston Astros.