Shane Victorino announced his official retirement from baseball today, effective in August, putting the 2008 World Series championship even further behind us. Acquired in the Rule 5 draft in 2004 from the Dodgers, the Phillies had dangled Victorino in front of L.A. when things didn’t work out, but the Dodgers had refused to take him back.
The Rule 5 draft is cruel.
In any case, the Phillies stashed Victorino in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and watched the Prospect Nobody Wanted hit .310 in 126 games and make the 2005 International League All-Star team, becoming the eventual league MVP, the last Phillies prospect to do so until Rhys Hoskins in 2017.