Phillies

Random Philadelphia Phillie of the Day: Randy Ready

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 16th, 2026 · 10:34 AM EDT

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Things are starting to slow down a bit around these parts, so we bring it back to the Random Philadelphia Phillie of the Day, and today the the name that came out of the hat is Randy Ready.

Ready’s name sounded vaguely familiar to me as an “Elder Millennial,” and it turns out Ready was the other guy who came to the Phils in the 1989 John Kruk trade:

• Padres get: Chris James
• Phillies get: John Kruk, Randy Ready

Looking for some details about the trade, and what was going on with each team at the time, I pulled this Curt Holbreich article from the LA Times archives:

Kruk and Ready were informed of the trade after the game with the Reds.

“I’m shocked,” Ready said. “I was combing my hair and (pitching coach Pat Dobson) said Jack (McKeon, Padres manager) wanted to talk to us in his office.”

Both Kruk and Ready have struggled this spring.

Kruk, 28, is off to the worst start of his career, batting .184 with three home runs and six runs batted in. He recently has become the odd-man out in a left and right field mix of Bip Roberts, Carmelo Martinez and Marvell Wynne.

Ready, 29, also has had his problems. He went through spring training as the likely starting third baseman, but Tim Flannery started opening day, and the late spring acquisition of Salazar made him expendable.

Ready, who is batting .254, had not played (since) May 20 because of hamstring pull until he grounded out Friday as a ninth-inning pinch hitter.

Kruk and Ready will be united in Philadelphia with former Padre Manager Larry Bowa, the Phillies’ third base coach. Kruk and Ready enjoyed their best seasons in the majors under Bowa in 1987: Kruk batted .313 with 20 home runs and 91 RBIs, and Ready hit .309 with 12 home runs and 54 RBIs.

Kruk said he will miss the Padres and was disappointed about leaving a contending team for the Phillies, loser of nine in a row.

Not sure how many younger fans realize this, but Kruk was somewhat of a late bloomer. He was a good player for the Padres, but became an All-Star with the Phillies at age 30. His best years were in the second half of his career, and he was 32 when the Phils went to the 1993 World Series.

Ready actually had two stints with the Phils after the trade. He was with the team from the second half of 1989 to 1991, and was a utility infielder / outfielder who played 72 games his first season, 101 games his second season, and then 76 games his third season. He became a free agent and played the 1992 season with Oakland and then bounced around between KC, Baltimore, and Montreal before coming back to the Phillies for portions of 1994 and 1995, playing 40 games during that second run.

So he actually missed the 1993 World Series, in which the Phils had Dave Hollins at third, Kevin Stocker and Mariano Duncan at short, and Mickey Morandini at second base. Pete Incaviglia and Milt Thompson split time in left field and then Nails and Jim Eisenreich were at center and right field. The Phils had Kim Batiste and a couple of others as flexible utility guys to do what Ready did back in 1991 and 1990.

If you include the games from 1994 and 1995, Ready finished his Phils career with a .256 average, .365 on-base percentage, and .723 OPS. He’s had a lengthy coaching career since retirement, mostly in the minor leagues, spending time with Fort Wayne, San Antonio, and Portland. He was the Padres’ hitting coach from 2009 to 2011, then found his way into the Rangers, Braves, and Marlins systems.

Interestingly enough, Ready completed a triple play back in 1991, which could have been an unassisted triple play if he had tagged the runner coming to second base:

He was also part of the team that completed the 10-0 comeback against the Pirates, which resulted in broadcaster Jim Rooker walking back to Pittsburgh.

Randy Ready is your random Philadelphia Phillie of the day.