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Stars who Switched Clubs Very Early in their Careers

Posted by Raphy
Often a player becomes so associated with a team that we forget that he started with another franchise. As a continuation of our conversations from yesterday, here are "the ones that got away", players who played their first season for one franchise and rest of their career for a different (single) franchise.



As you would expect this list is much shorter than yesterday's and Ryne Sandberg tops the chart:

Rk Player WAR/pos From To Tm
1 Ryne Sandberg 62.0 1981 1997 PHI-CHC
2 George Stone 26.9 1903 1910 BOS-SLB
3 John Reilly 24.4 1880 1891 CIN
4 Hank Thompson 23.3 1947 1956 SLB-NYG
5 Socks Seybold 22.6 1899 1908 CIN-PHA
6 John Stearns 18.6 1974 1984 PHI-NYM
7 Frank Isbell 16.0 1898 1909 CHC-CHW
8 Darby O'Brien 14.6 1887 1892 NYP-BRO
9 Heinie Wagner 13.8 1902 1918 NYG-BOS
10 Pat Duncan 9.0 1915 1924 PIT-CIN
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/13/2011.


I left the years in because of the scarcity of recent players. There are probably few people alive that remember seeing anyone other than Sandberg, Thompson and Steams.

If we loosen our requirements and include the WAR leaders for players who switched teams within the first 2 season of their career regardless of how many teams they ended up playing for, we get the this list which is full of 19th century pitchers.  I assume that this is because of the instability of franchises at the time. Here are the top players who began their careers in 1901 or later:

Rk Player WAR/pos From To SLG Tm
1 Kenny Lofton 65.3 1991 2007 .423 HOU-CLE-ATL-TOT-NYY-PHI-LAD
2 Ryne Sandberg 62.0 1981 1997 .452 PHI-CHC
3 Willie Randolph 60.5 1975 1992 .351 PIT-NYY-LAD-TOT-MIL-NYM
4 Sammy Sosa 59.7 1989 2007 .534 TOT-CHW-CHC-BAL-TEX
5 Jeff Kent 59.4 1992 2008 .500 NYM-TOT-SFG-HOU-LAD
6 Minnie Minoso 52.8 1949 1980 .459 TOT-CHW-CLE-STL-WSA
7 Edd Roush 46.5 1913 1931 .446 CHW-IND-NEW-TOT-CIN-NYG
8 Heinie Groh 46.4 1912 1927 .384 TOT-CIN-NYG-PIT
9 Dolph Camilli 43.0 1933 1945 .492 CHC-TOT-PHI-BRO-BOS
10 Julio Franco 40.6 1982 2007 .417 PHI-CLE-TEX-CHW-TOT-TBD-ATL-NYM
11 Roger Maris 39.8 1957 1968 .476 CLE-TOT-KCA-NYY-STL
12 Ernie Lombardi 39.0 1931 1947 .460 BRO-CIN-BSN-NYG
13 Bill Nicholson 39.0 1936 1953 .465 PHA-CHC-PHI
14 Moises Alou 38.2 1990 2008 .516 TOT-MON-FLA-HOU-CHC-SFG-NYM
15 Eddie Stanky 38.1 1943 1953 .348 CHC-TOT-BRO-BSN-NYG-STL
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/14/2011.

This is probably more of what we wanted. With some exceptions, most of these players here starred with a team different from the one with which they debuted.

The pitching list is somewhat trickier to create, but the top 4 pitchers to switch teams within their first 2 seasons and then never again are all old-timers:

Rk Player
WAR ▾ From To Tm
1 Babe Adams 2 45.2 1906 1926 STL-PIT
2 Charlie Root 2 37.9 1923 1941 SLB-CHC
3 Jesse Haines 2 33.8 1918 1937 CIN-STL
4 Deacon Phillippe 2 33.0 1899 1911 LOU-PIT
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/14/2011.

Once again expanding our criteria to include any players who switched teams within their first 2 seasons gives us  more interesting list. Again, I have only included players who started their careers in 1901 or later. Most of the more recent players are on the lower half of the list.

Rk Player WAR From To Tm
1 Randy Johnson 91.8 1988 2009 MON-TOT-SEA-NYY-ARI-SFG
2 Fergie Jenkins 81.3 1965 1983 PHI-TOT-CHC-TEX-BOS
3 David Cone 57.5 1986 2003 NYM-KCR-TOT-NYY-BOS
4 Dazzy Vance 56.4 1915 1935 TOT-NYY-STL-BRO
5 Mordecai Brown 56.1 1903 1916 STL-CHC-CIN-TOT-CHI
6 Stan Coveleski 54.0 1912 1928 PHA-CLE-WSH-NYY
7 Eddie Cicotte 49.7 1905 1920 DET-BOS-TOT-CHW
8 Waite Hoyt 47.0 1918 1938 NYG-BOS-NYY-TOT-PIT-BRO
9 Babe Adams 45.2 1906 1926 STL-PIT
10 Charlie Root 37.9 1923 1941 SLB-CHC
11 Claude Passeau 35.2 1935 1947 PIT-PHI-TOT-CHC
12 Jeff Pfeffer 34.7 1911 1924 SLB-BRO-STL-TOT
13 Jesse Haines 33.8 1918 1937 CIN-STL
14 Doyle Alexander 31.9 1971 1989 LAD-BAL-TEX-ATL-SFG-NYY-TOT-TOR-DET
15 Preacher Roe 31.8 1938 1954 STL-PIT-BRO
16 Bill Hands 31.8 1965 1975 SFG-CHC-MIN-TOT-TEX
17 Derek Lowe 31.4 1997 2011 TOT-BOS-LAD-ATL
18 Jose Rijo 31.0 1984 2002 NYY-OAK-CIN
19 Trevor Hoffman 30.8 1993 2010 TOT-SDP-MIL
20 Rube Walberg 30.7 1923 1937 TOT-PHA-BOS
21 Tom Zachary 30.6 1918 1936 PHA-WSH-SLB-NYY-BSN-TOT-BRO
22 Sid Fernandez 30.3 1983 1997 LAD-NYM-BAL-TOT-PHI-HOU
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/14/2011.


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