The Top 24 Single-Season Philadelphia Phillies RBI Leaders

Last Updated on April 10, 2024 by Matt Musico

The Philadelphia Phillies have been around as a franchise since 1883. So, they’ve had ample opportunity for players wearing their colors to put up huge numbers in the RBI department. Overall, there have been 91 instances of a player reaching triple digits. But which hitters are among the single-season Phillies RBI leaders?

Below, you’ll find a more in-depth look at each of the top five instances before listing out the remainder of the top 24.

Single-Season Phillies RBI Leaders: Top 5

Table of Contents

Chuck Klein: 170 RBI in 1930

Chuck Klein enjoyed a five-year stretch where he collected 120-plus RBI in a single season from 1929-1933. He led baseball in RBI on two occasions. Coincidentally enough, both of those times (121 in 1931 and 120 in 1933) were his two lowest totals. Although Klein didn’t lead the league in RBI in 1930 with those 170 rib-eye steaks, he added 40 homers while leading the league in doubles (59) and runs scored (158). It resulted in a pretty ridiculous .386/.436/.687 line across 722 plate appearances.

Klein drove in 30-plus runs three times during the 1930 season. They each came consecutively, spanning from May to July. His cumulative numbers across this 83-game sample size are quite ridiculous, too. In just 388 plate appearances, Klein slashed .418/.463/.747 with 25 home runs, 33 doubles, 105 RBI, and 96 runs scored.

As the game progressed into the later innings, the slugger drove in more runs. Klein collected 45 RBI through the first three innings. That was followed by 52 RBI in the middle three innings and 55 in the final three frames.

Sam Thompson: 165 RBI in 1895

The best way to check how legendary a player’s single-season performance is to see how long it’s stayed at the top of the leaderboard. Sam Thompson takes the cake here since his 165-RBI campaign is still hanging around despite happening before the live ball era. He racked up 1,308 RBI across his 15-year Hall of Fame career. This included eight seasons of 100-plus RBI, with three of those reaching at least 149.

Thompson’s 1895 season was the third and final time he reached these heights. He racked up 211 hits in 576 plate appearances, and the spread of his extra-base hits is eye-opening. The outfielder slugged 18 homers with 45 doubles and 21 triples. His RBI and homer numbers both led the league. The same could be said about his .654 slugging percentage and 352 total bases.

Although he drove in 100 runs in 119 games played the following year, Thompson collected just 122 total RBI throughout the remainder of his career after his huge performance in 1895.

Ryan Howard: 149 RBI in 2006

Ryan Howard‘s peak with the Philadelphia Phillies was absurd. It began in 2006 when he led the league in home runs (58) and RBI (149) on his way to winning a Silver Slugger Award and the National League MVP Award. This was the start of a four-year stretch where he collected 45-plus homers and 136-plus RBI. In addition to registering a league-leading 383 total bases, Howard’s triple slash was at career-high marks in 2006. He hit .313/.425/.669, which resulted in a 1.084 OPS. It was the only time he finished a year with that number cresting over 1.000.

The left-handed slugger was good all year. However, he kicked things into high gear in the second half. Howard posted a .923 OPS with 28 home runs and 71 RBI in 352 plate appearances before the All-Star Game. Following the midsummer classic, those numbers rose to 1.259, 30, and 78, respectively, in the same number of trips to the plate.

Howard enjoyed two months of 30-plus RBI, but his August performance is what helped propel him to an MVP Award. He posted a 1.214 OPS with 14 homers and 41 RBI. It doesn’t hurt that he also slashed .385/.562/.750 with another nine homers and 21 RBI to finish out the year in September/October.

Ed Delahanty: 146 RBI in 1893

We’ve got another pre-1900 player on this list in Ed Delahanty. Like Thompson, Delahanty is also a Hall of Famer. The two-time batting champ produced ridiculous numbers across the board in 132 games during the 1893 campaign. He slashed .368/.423/.583 with 19 homers (which led the league), 35 doubles, 18 triples, 146 RBI (which also led the league), and 145 runs scored.

It was the first time his RBI total surpassed the century mark in a single season. That was a number Delahanty would reach a total of seven times in his 16-year career. All of these instances came between 1893 and 1901. It’s also worth noting his consistency in this area of his offensive game. From 1892 to 1902, the right-handed hitter never produced fewer than 91 RBI in a season.

Ryan Howard: 146 RBI in 2008

The 2008 season was the second time Howard led the league in both homers (48) and RBI (146). Although he finished second in MVP Award voting, his triple slash looked much different than it did in ’06. He finished with a .251/.339/.543 line, which resulted in a .881 OPS. Those numbers still aren’t too shabby. They’re also more acceptable when accompanied by those power numbers.

Unsurprisingly, Howard posted double-digit RBI totals against all National League East opponents. He enjoyed facing the Atlanta Braves more than anyone else, though. His seven homers and 24 RBI against them were his highest totals against any big-league club. The St. Louis native also destroyed the Cardinals in nine head-to-head matchups. He needed just 40 plate appearances to rack up a 1.640 OPS with six homers and 15 RBI.

The slugger saved his best work in 2008 for the end of the regular season. His 1.274 OPS, 11 homers, seven doubles, and 32 RBI in September/October were all season-high marks for a single month. That carried over into the postseason, where Howard posted a .897 OPS for the eventual World Champion Phillies.

Single-Season Phillies RBI Leaders: The Rest

Here’s your reminder that a Phillies player has posted a 100 RBI season on 91 different occasions in franchise history. Although Howard appears a couple more times, the remainder of the top 24 (seen below) is mostly filled with players from different eras. One guy that pops up from the not-too-distant past is Jim Thome.

He spent parts of four seasons in Philly, but only his first two included him playing 140-plus games. It’s hard to produce better than he did as a major free-agent acquisition. Thome posted two straight 40-homer, 100-RBI campaigns while hitting a combined .270/.391/.576. His 131-RBI performance in 2003 was his first year with the club. And for someone like him, who is a Hall of Famer with 612 career home runs, he only led the league in dingers once. It was 2003 with the Phillies when he slugged 47.

Here’s a peek at what the remainder of the top-24 single-season RBI performances in Phillies history look like right now.

Chuck Klein, 1929: 145 RBI
Don Hurst, 1932: 143
Sam Thompson, 1894: 141
Ryan Howard, 2009: 141
Ed Delahanty, 1899: 137
Chuck Klein, 1932: 137
Ryan Howard, 2007: 136
Ed Delahanty, 1894: 131
Jim Thome, 2003: 131
Greg Luzinski, 1977: 130
Gavvy Cravath, 1913: 128
Nap Lajoie, 1897 & 1898: 127
Sam Thompson, 1893: 126
Ed Delahanty, 1896: 126
Del Ennis, 1950: 126
Lave Cross, 1894: 125
Don Hurst, 1929: 125
Del Ennis, 1953: 125

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