PHILADELPHIA -- MLB Pipeline recently released its annual Top 30 International Prospects list for players eligible to ink deals in the 2020-21 signing period. Some of them could become the game’s next international stars, following in the footsteps of thousands of players from around the globe before them.

• Here are 2020’s Top 30 international prospects

It got us thinking about the top international signings in Phillies history. Here are our top five:

1. Ferguson "Fergie" Jenkins (84.2 WAR per Baseball-Reference)
The Phillies signed Jenkins on June 15, 1962, out of Vocational High School in Chatham, Ontario. He showed immediate promise, making his big league debut in September 1965. He posted a 2.19 ERA in seven relief appearances, striking out 10 and walking two in 12 1/3 innings.

Then the Phillies traded him to the Cubs in April 1966.

“I never got the feeling from [Phillies manager Gene] Mauch that he thought I had the guts to be a successful pitcher,” Jenkins once said.

Mauch believed that the Phillies had a chance to win in 1966, and he wanted to exorcise the demons from the infamous ’64 collapse. He believed he needed veteran arms behind Jim Bunning and Chris Short to do it. So Phillies general manager John Quinn and Mauch shipped Jenkins, first baseman John Herrnstein and center fielder Adolfo Phillips to Chicago for pitchers Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl.

It became one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history. Jenkins went 284-226 with a 3.34 ERA and 3,192 strikeouts in a 19-year career. He accumulated 81.7 bWAR after the trade, and got inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991. Jackson accumulated 11.4 bWAR in three seasons with the Phillies. Buhl posted a -0.7 bWAR, making 32 appearances in ’66 and three in ’67 in his final season in the Majors. Add in Phillips (13.8) and Herrnstein (-0.3) and the Cubs won the trade 95.2 to 10.7 in terms of bWAR.

Imagine if the Phillies held onto Jenkins. Maybe he would've teamed up with Steve Carlton in the 1970s, and maybe the Phillies would've won a World Series before '80.

2. Julio Franco (43.6 bWAR)
Franco played 2,527 games for eight teams over 23 seasons, but he only played 16 games for the Phillies.

After the Phillies signed him as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 1978, he made his big league debut in '82. The Phillies then traded him in December in the famous five-for-one Von Hayes blockbuster with Cleveland. The Phillies shipped Manny Trillo, Jay Baller, George Vukovich, Jerry Willard and Franco to the Indians. Hayes slashed .272/.363/.427 with a 118 OPS+ in nine seasons with the Phillies. He made one National League All-Star team and had a solid career (29.9 bWAR), but Franco had the longer and better one.

3. Carlos Ruiz (22.5 bWAR)
The Phillies scouted "Chooch" as a second baseman, but they determined that he might be better behind the plate. They signed Ruiz as an amateur free agent out of Panama in 1998 for $8,000. He got to the big leagues and earned regular playing time because of his work bend the plate. Eventually, he developed into an above-average hitter from 2009-14 (.282/.366/.423 with a 114 OPS+).

Ruiz was Roy Halladay’s favorite catcher, too.

4. George Bell (20.0 bWAR)
Bell is one of former Phillies GM Pat Gillick’s favorite stories, because Gillick was Toronto’s general manager when he plucked Bell from the Phillies in the 1980 Rule 5 Draft. Bell played only 22 games that season with Double-A Reading because of a back injury. He hit no home runs. The Phillies thought nobody would pick Bell, because they thought nobody would remember him. But Gillick has a photographic memory. He watched Bell take a few swings at Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla. He never forgot.

“We got that little bit of a look and decided to take him, and I don’t think they were expecting it,” Gillick said in “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the Philadelphia Phillies." “[Phillies scout] Hugh Alexander always used to say, ‘I don’t know how you guys knew about that guy.’ I think they were a little bit stunned, actually.”

Bell played 12 seasons in the big leagues, winning the 1987 American League Most Valuable Player Award.

5. Juan Samuel (17.0 bWAR)
Samuel made the National League All-Star team and finished second for the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1984. He ranked 48th in baseball in bWAR (12.8) from 1984-87. In that span, he led baseball with 59 triples and ranked fourth with 202 stolen bases.

He got a spot on the Phillies Wall of Fame in 2008.