Phillies Events on January 12
- January 12, 1920 — The Phillies purchased Mack Wheat from the Brooklyn Robins. Wheat played two seasons (1920-1921) in Philadelphia and hit .222 in 88 games.
- January 12, 1969 — Walla Walla was officially awarded a Northwest League franchise and secured a working agreement with the Phillies, creating what became the Walla Walla Bears as a Phillies affiliate.
- January 12, 1994 — Steve Carlton was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Carlton’s election came in his first season of eligibility. (for more information on Phillies who were elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, see the Deeper Dive section of: This Date in Phillies (and MLB) History: January 9.)
- January 12, 2018 — The Phillies agreed to a one-year deal with reliever Luis Garcia to avoid arbitration.
MLB Events on January 12
- January 12, 1920 — Baseball adopted a plan to draft players from the minor leagues in inverse order of the prior season’s standings. In broad strokes, it’s part of the long evolution toward more formalized acquisition systems for minor league talent.
- January 12, 1921 — Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected baseball’s first Commissioner. That vote and the establishment of the commissioner’s office, reshaped league governance.
- January 12, 1983 — Brooks Robinson and Juan Marichal were elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Two all-time great careers got their official Cooperstown stamp on the same day.
- January 12, 1988 — Willie Stargell was the lone BBWAA Hall of Fame selection. It’s one of those “single inductee” announcement years people still remember. (for more on Stargell’s career, see: Stadium Week: Veterans Stadium (1971-2003) for info on his historic Veterans Stadium home run. You can also find the rest of our Stadium Week series under the Phillies History tab under Stadiums.)
Phillies-Associated Birthdays on January 12
- Henry Larkin (born 1860) A first baseman/outfielder with the Philadelphia Athletics who played and managed in the American Association. Born in Reading, PA, Larkin played six seasons with the A’s and produced a line of: 26-462-.305/.374/.441/.815 with Philadelphia. He also managed the Cleveland Infants of the Player’s League in 1890. (for more information on The Player’s League, see the Deeper Dive section of: This Date in Phillies (and MLB) History: December 26.)
- Togie Pittinger (born 1872) Pittinger finished his MLB career with the Phillies (1905–1907) and logged a long deadball-era workload.
- Harry “Doc” Imlay (born 1889) Born in Allentown, NJ, Imlay had a nine-game MLB career, all with the Phillies in 1913. In 13.2 innings he posted a 7.24 ERA.
- George Knothe (born 1898) He played six games for the 1932 Phillies, the classic “cup of coffee” major leaguer whose pro career extended much more broadly in the minors.
- Reggie Taylor (1977) A former Phillies first-round pick who debuted with Philadelphia in 2000, he later played for the Reds and Devil Rays during his MLB run.
- Aramis Garcia (1993) He reached the majors with multiple clubs and has been with the Phillies as part of his MLB journey.
Non-Phillies MLB Birthdays on January 12
- Randy Jones (1950) Best known as the Padres’ ace who won the 1976 NL Cy Young Award.
- Bill Madlock (1951) A four-time NL batting champion and key bat on the 1979 World Series champion Pirates. He led the NL in hitting in four seasons and all of MLB in two seasons.
- Mike Marshall (1960) An All-Star with the Dodgers and a long-time big leaguer. Played 11 seasons with LA, Boston, the Mets, and the Angels.
- Dontrelle Willis (1982) The high-energy lefty won NL Rookie of the Year in 2003 and became a major face of the Marlins’ mid-2000s teams.
- Alex Wood (1991) A prominent left-hander of the 2010s–2020s who had a 12-year MLB career with the Dodgers, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Oakland.
A DEEPER DIVE…The Evolution of the MLB Draft
Before Major League Baseball had the amateur draft we know today, there was already an effort to regulate how major league clubs acquired players from independent minor league teams. Back in the late 19th century, teams would simply purchase contracts from minor league clubs or sign players outright, which often led to instability in the minors and lopsided competition. Early versions of what would become a draft system emerged in that era as a way to limit clubs’ ability to hoard talent and to provide players with a clearer path to the big leagues. By the early 20th century, much of the minor league system was still autonomous, and major league clubs frequently negotiated directly for minor league players.
On January 12, 1920, MLB owners formally adopted a long-discussed plan — originally developed by Charles Ebbets — to draft players from minor league teams in reverse order of the major league standings from the previous season. This was an early attempt to establish a level of competitive balance and to prevent wealthier franchises from simply buying up all the best minor league talent. The idea was that weaker big league clubs would get first choice of unprotected minor leaguers, giving them a better chance to improve.
This draft of minor league players evolved over time into what we now know as the Rule 5 Draft. The Rule 5 Draft, governed today by Rule 5 of the Official Baseball Rules, still exists as a mechanism for clubs to select players from other organizations’ farm systems if those players have spent a requisite number of years in the minors without being added to a 40-man roster. It continues to serve the purpose of preventing teams from stockpiling talent indefinitely and gives certain minor league players a chance to break into the major leagues.
In the decades following 1920, the growth of the farm system — pioneered by Branch Rickey and others — changed how major and minor league relationships worked. As more clubs established direct affiliations with their own minor league teams, the independent minor leagues became less of a supplier of talent via auctions and purchases, but the Rule 5 Draft remained as a key safeguard for player mobility within the organized baseball structure.
Origins of today’s draft
It took even longer for the Major League Baseball Draft to develop. Amateur players didn’t have a centralized way into the pros. High school seniors, college stars, and other amateurs were able to sign with any team that offered them a contract. Wealthy, successful franchises naturally benefited most because they outbid everyone else for the top young talent. The New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals of the 1950s and early ’60s exemplified that model, often leaving nascent clubs without access to the same talent pool. Baseball lagged behind other major sports; football had instituted its draft in 1936, basketball followed in 1947, and hockey in 1963, but baseball remained a free-for-all well into the 1960s.
To level the playing field, Major League Baseball instituted an amateur draft in 1965. It was designed to restrict bidding wars for raw talent and give teams with poorer records first access to the best young players. The first draft was held June 8–9, 1965, in New York City, and the Kansas City Athletics selected Rick Monday from Arizona State University as the number one pick. That inaugural event also saw future Hall of Famers like Johnny Bench (selected by the Cincinnati Reds) and Nolan Ryan (selected by the New York Mets) enter professional baseball through the draft.
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The Multi-Phase Draft and the January Draft
When the draft was new, MLB actually ran multiple drafts several times a year. There was the main June draft, which was the biggest and most significant. But there was also a January draft, intended for high school players who graduated in winter, junior college players, and four-year college players who had dropped out mid-year. An August draft also briefly existed for players transitioning from amateur summer leagues. The logic was to catch all possible amateur baseball talent, regardless of when a player’s season or academic calendar ended.
Over time, however, this structure proved overly complex and unwieldy. The August draft disappeared after a brief experiment, and the January draft continued until 1986. After it was discontinued, the entire draft process shifted toward a single, consolidated format. From 1987 onward, MLB has run just one draft annually, in June. This is the draft most fans know today, where teams select amateur players in a long series of rounds based on their previous season’s standings.
Rule 4, Amateur Draft, First-Year Player Draft
Officially in the rulebooks, the MLB Draft goes by a technical name: the Rule 4 Draft, because it is spelled out in Rule 4 of the Official Professional Baseball Rules. That rule governs how teams acquire “first-year players” from the amateur ranks. But in everyday parlance, you’ve probably heard it called the First-Year Player Draft, and more commonly, the Amateur Draft. All three refer to the same process where teams take turns selecting high school seniors, college juniors and seniors, and other amateurs who meet certain eligibility requirements.
At various points in baseball history, the draft’s name and its structure have shifted slightly, often in reaction to broader changes in the sport or to close loopholes. For example, in the late 1990s, there was a moment when a highly-touted college player — J. D. Drew — took a different route by signing with an independent league rather than going straight into the draft system. That scenario prompted MLB to revise draft rules and eventually reinforced the draft’s role as the standard avenue for amateur talent.
Television, Public Attention, and Growing Popularity
For the longest time, baseball’s draft was something of a quiet event. Unlike the NFL or NBA drafts that get prime time television coverage and intense national scrutiny, the MLB Draft was largely a paper event until the late 1990s. Interest surged as baseball media expanded coverage, particularly as websites and industry analysts began openly reporting picks in real time and Major League Baseball itself embraced wider publicity. By the turn of the millennium, MLB was releasing full draft lists promptly and broadcasting substantial portions of the June draft on television. This evolution helped turn what was once an arcane administrative process into a public spectacle.
Draft Rounds and Bonus Pools
The draft originally featured a large number of rounds — up to 50 at certain times in the late 1990s and 2000s. This massive roster of selections reflected MLB’s deep farm system and the sport’s emphasis on long player development. Over time, though, the number of rounds was reduced under new collective bargaining agreements. The idea was to streamline the process and to tie teams’ signing bonuses to structured pools. These bonus pools set maximum amounts teams were allowed to offer in total to their draft selections in the top rounds, with penalties for exceeding those limits. The goal was to prevent runaway bidding and create a more balanced approach to amateur talent.
Today’s Draft
Today’s MLB Draft is a major — though still somewhat understated compared to football or basketball — annual event in the baseball calendar. It serves as the primary way franchises restock their farm systems and plan for the future. Teams strategize over hundreds of selections, balancing raw tools with signability, and fans increasingly follow draft coverage as closely as free agency each winter. Through decades of tweaks, consolidations, and cultural changes, what began as a solution to free-agent bidding inequities has grown into a central pillar of how baseball builds its next generation of stars.
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