Ben Revere

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Ben Daniel Revere

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Biographical Information[edit]

Ben Revere was the first-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2007.

Revere hit .517 as a high school senior with 10 home runs, 57 runs, 48 RBI and 27 steals in 28 tries. Overall, he had batted .489 in high school. In the 60-yard dash, he was timed at 6.28. One of Revere's favorite players was Kirby Puckett, another short and strong player. Revere signed with the University of Georgia. Puckett's old Minnesota Twins club took Revere with the 28th pick of the 2007 amateur draft. He opted to sign with scout Billy Corrigan for $750,000 rather than go on to college. USA Today named him to their All-USA high school baseball team. He debuted on June 22, going 1 for 4 with a triple, walk, run, RBI and time caught stealing against the GCL Red Sox for the GCL Twins. He hit .325/.388/.461 for the year with 21 steals in 30 tries. He hit 10 triples and scored 46 runs in just 50 games. He finished 7th in the Gulf Coast League in average, led in triples (four more than the runner-up), was second in steals (one behind Isaias Velasquez) and led in runs (five more than anyone else) for a fine first pro season.

Revere hit .379/.433/.479 for the 2008 Beloit Snappers with 44 steals in 57 tries and 10 triples. He made eight outfield errors, though, and hit only one homer. He led the Midwest League in both average (.055 over runner-up Mitch Moreland) and OBP. He was named a MWL All-Star outfielder as well as the league's MVP. Baseball America rated him the league's #4 prospect after Mike Moustakas, Neftali Feliz and Jarrod Parker and ahead of Brett Wallace. He was also rated the #59 prospect in all of baseball and the Twins Minor League Player of the Year.

In 2009, Revere batted .311/.372/.369 for the Fort Myers Miracle with 45 steals in 62 tries. His defense much improved, he made no errors. He led Twins farmhands in average, steals and hits (145). He was rated the best batting prospect and fastest baserunner in the Florida State League by Baseball America. He led the FSL in hits and was second in average, .002 behind Logan Schafer and .009 ahead of Starlin Castro. Revere was named the league's All-Star left fielder, joining Schafer and Caleb Gindl in the outfield. Baseball America rated him the FSL's 8th-best prospect, after Castro and Jenrry Mejia and ahead of Ike Davis and Austin Romine.

Ben began 2010 with the New Britain Rock Cats. He made the US roster for the 2010 Futures Game. He came up in the 5th as a pinch-hitter for Brett Jackson but grounded out against Henderson Alvarez. Staying in the game in right field, Revere flew out against Philippe Valiquette and ground out versus Jeurys Familia in his other two trips up. With the Rock Cats in 2010, he hit .305/.371/.363 with 36 steals in 49 tries. Among players with 400+ plate appearances, he was second in the Eastern League in average behind Tagg Bozied. He was third in swipes behind Darin Mastroianni and Darren Ford.

A September call-up to The Show, the former first-rounder pinch-hit for Denard Span and struck out versus Jesse Chavez in his major league debut on September 7, 2010. He hit .188 in 5 games in his first taste of the Show, the started 2011 at AAA Rochester before being called up to Minnesota in May. He hit .303 in 32 games at Rochester, then .267 in 117 games for the Twins, scoring 56 runs and stealing 34 bases as the team's most-used centerfielder and one of the few bright spots on an injury-riddled last-place squad. In 2012, he played 124 games, hitting a solid .294 with 70 runs scored and 40 stolen bases. He did not hit a single homer in his first three seasons in the majors and had only 9 doubles in 2011 and 13 in 2012. However, his great speed led to 5 and 6 triples those two seasons. On December 6, 2012, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in return for Ps Vance Worley and Trevor May.

Revere suffered a broken right foot just before the All-Star break in 2013, as he fouled a ball off his foot on July 13th. The injury occurred in the 11th inning of the first game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox; he stayed in the game and then grounded into a game-ending double play, going gingerly down the line, before x-rays revealed the fracture after the game. He had started the season slowly, hitting only .200 on May 1st, but had managed to raise his average to .305 before the injury ended his season. He came back to be the Phillies' opening day centerfielder in 2014. he continued to hit for a good average, but with few walks and little power. On May 27th, however, he connected for the first home run of his big league career, after 1,466 at-bats, when he went deep off Boone Logan of the Colorado Rockies in a 6-2 loss. It was a well-hit ball to right field at Citizens Bank Park that easily cleared the wall. The blast ended the longest homer drought to start a career since Frank Taveras had gone 1,594 at bats from 1972 until hitting his first long ball in 1977. He joked after the game that now that he had gotten the first one out of the way, he would try to hit 400 more. He did hit a second homer before the end of the year, but more impressively he finished with 184 hits, tied for the National League lead with former teammate Denard Span. He led the circuit in singles, and had a .306 batting average, but his lack of power and walks (he drew only 13 bases on balls) meant that his OPS+ was only 93 in spite of all the hits.

The Phillies had an awful first half in 2015, as they had the worst record in the major leagues and manager Ryne Sandberg quit in frustration. They played better in the first couple of weeks after the All-Star break, but it was clear that they had to rebuild the team by trading some of the veterans for youngsters at the trading deadline. Following Ps Jonathan Papelbon, Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman, Ben was moved to another team on July 31st, sent to the Toronto Blue Jays in return for Jimmy Cordero and Alberto Tirado. He was hitting .298 with 1 homer, 26 RBIs and 49 runs scored in 96 games at the time. He was installed as the Jays' starting left fielder and lead-off hitter and did very well, hitting .319 with 35 runs scored in 56 games as the Jays ran away with the AL East tied thanks to an excellent last two months. He started every game which the Jays played in the postseason, hitting .304 in the ALDS against the Texas Rangers and .208 when the Kansas City Royals defeated Toronto in six games in the ALCS.

On January 8, 2016, Revere was traded again, this time to the Washington Nationals in return for P Drew Storen. He was slated to replace former teammate Denard Span in centerfield, who had left the Nats as a free agent a few weeks earlier. He played 103 games with the Nats, hitting .217 with 2 home runs and 24 RBIs, but he lost his job as the teams starting centerfielder to rookie Trea Turner and played little down the stretch. The Nationals won a division title, but Revere did not play at all in the Division Series which Washington lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He became a free agent after the season and on December 23rd, he signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In 2021 Revere became a hitting coach with the Lexington Legends of the independent Atlantic League. He was also activated for at least one game as a designated hitter that season. The Atlanta Braves hired Revere in 2023 as a coach for the FCL Braves.

Revere's father, John, was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 1972 amateur draft. His brother, J.R. Revere, was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 2001 amateur draft and spent one season in the Frontier League.

Sources: 6/28/2007 USA Today, MILB.com

Notable Achievements[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Andrew Simon: "Revere brings extreme Statcast profile to DC: Speedy outfielder's contact ability, ground-ball approach, lack of pop make him an outlier", mlb.com, January 13, 2016. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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