Phantom ballplayer

A phantom ballplayer is either a baseball player who is incorrectly listed in source materials as playing in a Major League Baseball (MLB) game, often the result of typographical or clerical errors, or a player who spent time on an MLB active roster without ever appearing in an MLB contest during his career.

Most of the first form of phantom players date from the 19th or early 20th century, with at least one showing up as late as World War II.

A modern-day phantom ballplayer is generally caused by the player being removed from the active roster by a subsequent action (such as being optioned to a minor league team) or the team reaching the end of their season, and the player not having later opportunity to play in a major league game.

Research by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has identified over 400 players who appeared on major league rosters, but did not appear in a major league game, since 1884.

† denotes an active professional baseball player who could lose phantom status if he returns to the major leagues and appears in a game Baseball-Reference.com maintains lists of players who have appeared in only a single major league game; as of April 2024, there are over 1,500 batters and over 700 pitchers listed.

Brian Jeroloman spent a month with the 2011 Toronto Blue Jays without appearing in a game.
Pete Compton of the St. Louis Browns , now credited with the plate appearance of "Lou Proctor"
Bill Sharman , who was briefly on the roster of the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers
Shawn Zarraga was briefly on the active roster of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016.
Marcus Walden was first listed on an MLB active roster in April 2014, but did not make his MLB debut until April 2018.