an error. It's a joke. I honestly think you could take half of them away." Rolen was named Spartanburg's Most Valuable Player after batting .294 with 14 home runs and 72 RBIs, but he "wasn't satisfied with anything [he] did", telling reporters after the season, "I need to improve my entire game." When the minor league season concluded, Rolen participated in the 1994 Florida Instructional League to continue honing his sport. As a minor league baseball player, Rolen was unaffected by the 1994–95 MLB strike, and he reported that April to the Class A-Advanced Clearwater Phillies of the Florida State League. He missed the first part of the season, however, with a fractured hook of hamate on his glove hand that required surgery. He was activated from the disabled list on June 6, hitting two home runs against the Brevard County Manatees in his first game after the injury. The injury appeared to help Rolen's offensive performance, as it was less painful for him to hit a pitch well inside the strike zone than outside of it. After hitting .290 with ten home runs and 39 RBIs in 238 at bats in Clearwater, Rolen was promoted to the Double-A Reading Phillies of the Eastern League on August 16. He played in an additional 20 games after his promotion, batting .290 with three home runs and 15 RBIs in 76 at bats. Rather than promoting Rolen directly to the major leagues, the Phillies chose to keep him in Reading for the start of the 1996 season, with Todd Zeile playing third base in Philadelphia. After recording nine home runs and 42 RBIs while leading the Eastern League by a .361 average, 83 hits, 22 doubles, a .568 slugging percentage, and 33 extra-base hits in 61 games for Reading, Rolen was promoted to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons of the International League on June 13. Rolen's promotion coincided with a difficult stretch for the Phillies, and the team began planning at the end of June to call him up to Philadelphia after the All-Star Game break. He batted .274 in 45 games for Scranton, with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 168 at bats. Philadelphia Phillies (1996–2002) Rather than taking advantage of the MLB trading deadline to acquire new players for the struggling team, the Phillies chose to promote Rolen for his MLB debut on August 1, 1996. He debuted for