Reliever was traded for same HOFer — twice
A model of this story initially ran in April 2020.
Plunk was going to the toilet when the cellphone rang to tell him of the June 1989 commerce, in order that’s about as private because it will get. And after that cellphone name despatched him scrambling throughout the nation to hitch his new staff, Plunk thought of how unlikely it was — and the way unfortunate he was — to be concerned in blockbuster offers for Henderson twice within the span of 4 1/2 years.
“If this dude would retire,” Plunk remembers pondering, “maybe I could stay in one place.”
Henderson retired after the 2003 season, with a Major League-record 1,406 stolen bases and a pair of,295 runs scored. He was a legendary leadoff man and one of the electrifying gamers within the historical past of the game.
But Rickey additionally modified groups 12 instances and was traded 4 instances — an uncommon quantity of motion for a participant of his profile. And what’s doubly uncommon is that Plunk, a right-handed reliever who would go on to a protracted profession of his personal, was in some way concerned within the first two of these swaps — going from the Yankees to the A’s when Henderson turned George Steinbrenner’s prized pickup on the 1984 Winter Meetings (38 years in the past in the present day), then again to the Yankees when Henderson made his triumphant return to Oakland halfway by way of the ’89 season.
It’s one of many nice transactional oddities of all time and a enjoyable level of baseball reflection. Obviously, trades occur on a regular basis, and there are occasional cases in historical past during which gamers had been dealt for one another twice (Tim Cullen and Ron Hansen had been the primary gamers dealt for one another twice in the identical season, flip-flopping between the Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators in February and August of 1968).
To be traded twice for a similar Hall of Famer, nevertheless, is very uncommon. Unfortunately, Elias Sports Bureau was not capable of inform us if Plunk is the one participant with such a declare to Fame. But it’s secure to say the checklist is brief.
“At least,” Plunk says with amusing, “I must have had some kind of value in the trades.”
The first commerce
When the Yankees plucked Plunk out of highschool within the fourth spherical of the 1981 Draft, he assumed, as any Yankees Draft pickup may, that he would sooner or later don the well-known pinstripes in his huge league debut. But whereas an affiliation with the Yanks had many perks — higher Minor League pay than you’d discover in most farm programs on the time and excellent instruction, to call just a few — his outlook was altered as soon as he received the lay of the land.
“Every time a position opened up at the big league level, the Yankees would make a blockbuster trade,” Plunk says. “They wanted well-known players. In the Minor Leagues, we understood that the best thing that could happen to you is to kick butt and get traded.”
Plunk certainly kicked butt as a 20-year-old at Class A Fort Lauderdale in 1984, compiling a 2.86 ERA over 176 1/3 innings (28 begins). Baseball America ranked him because the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect going into ’85.
Meanwhile, Henderson was coming off a sometimes wonderful 1984 season. He was a four-time All-Star, had led the American League in steals 5 straight years, and although this specific stat wasn’t getting a lot consideration even from the A’s on the time, had a profession on-base proportion of precisely .400.
Henderson was additionally a pending free agent, and his hometown A’s — mired as they had been in a sequence of sub-.500 seasons — weren’t motivated to increase him.
“Probably in 1985,” then-general supervisor Sandy Alderson would later inform MLB Trade Rumors, “we didn’t have a full appreciation of all his talents.”
What the A’s did have was a marketplace for Henderson that included the Yankees, Orioles, Dodgers and Rangers. Oakland sought a five-player bundle and aimed excessive, focusing on packages that included not simply huge league skills just like the O’s Storm Davis and the Dodgers’ Bob Welch but in addition high prospects. As we noticed in Los Angeles’ February 2020 deal for Mookie Betts, acquiring that type of return for only one 12 months of management of a longtime famous person is just about unimaginable in in the present day’s sport. But again in 1984, the A’s had been setting a framework for offers involving high-profile gamers getting into free company that different golf equipment would observe for a few years.
When the cope with the Yankees was accomplished on Dec. 5, 1984, the A’s gave up Henderson, pitcher Bert Bradley and money and landed Jay Howell (an enormous league right-hander on the cusp of an All-Star season of his personal) and 4 of the Yankees’ high 5 prospects — right-hander Jose Rijo (broadly thought of the centerpiece of the A’s haul), outfielder Stan Javier, left-hander Tim Birtsas and Plunk.
Birtsas and Plunk had been teammates and roommates at Fort Lauderdale.
“We were stoked,” Plunk says. “We’re in the Minor Leagues, in A-ball and had never met Rickey Henderson, but we were thrilled to be traded for him. I understood this was the next step in my opportunity to get somewhere.”
With Oakland, Plunk received someplace shortly. He was at Double-A Huntsville and Triple-A Tacoma in 1985 and up within the huge leagues for many of ’86. By ’88, he was a key determine within the bullpen for the AL champs, and he pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings within the loss to the Dodgers within the World Series.
Though Rijo didn’t blossom till a subsequent commerce to the Reds previous to the 1988 season, the Henderson deal would nonetheless go down as a robust return for Oakland contemplating they gave up a one-year rental.
And from the Yankees’ perspective, Henderson wasn’t a rental for lengthy. Upon arrival, they gave him a five-year contract value $8.5 million, making him the third-highest paid participant in baseball on the time. Henderson lived as much as it by ending third in AL Most Valuable Player Award voting in 1985. (Yanks teammate Don Mattingly truly took dwelling AL MVP honors that 12 months. New York received 97 video games, but completed second to Toronto within the pre-Wild Card AL East, simply lacking the postseason.)
On the entire, Henderson’s New York tenure was wonderful. By the ultimate season of the deal in 1989, nevertheless, the Yankees weren’t prepared to fulfill Henderson’s asking value of $2.8 million per 12 months in a brand new deal. Henderson was 30 years previous, and 65 video games into the season, he was hitting simply .247 with 25 steals (a lightweight whole for him). So there was concern that his star was fading.
With the A’s simply two video games forward of the Royals within the AL West as of June 21 and seeking to get again to the Series stage, it was prime time to deliver Rickey again to his roots. Henderson had the fitting to veto any commerce the Yankees introduced to him, so Oakland had a leg up on the opposite suitors.
“Oakland was the only place I knew I’d like to go,” Henderson instructed the New York Times when the deal was carried out. ”I knew that if we did not come to an settlement by the All-Star break I’d be a free agent anyway, and we had the chance to do it now, so I made a decision to return dwelling.”
Among the A’s gamers, there was discuss of a possible Henderson swap within the days main as much as the commerce. And with the Yankees recognized to be focusing on reduction assist, Plunk figured he might be concerned.
“One of our pitching coaches [Dave Duncan] told us, ‘Oh, nobody’s going anywhere,’” Plunk recollects. “The way my mind works, that’s when it went, ‘Ding!’ It seems like, why would you say anything if there wasn’t something going on?”
Plunk’s instinct was correct. Around 8 a.m. PT the morning of June 21, his dwelling cellphone rang.
“I was taking a leak,” Plunk says with amusing. “My wife [Billie] answered the phone. I hear it ring and think, ‘Man, who could be calling this early?’ Because everybody knows you’re not supposed to call before like 10 or 11 a.m. And then it dawned on me: ‘Today’s the day, dude.’”
Indeed, Alderson was on the road, informing him the deal was carried out. It was Plunk, left-hander Greg Cadaret and outfielder Luis Polonia going to the Yanks for Henderson.
Whereas the primary commerce had Plunk excited in regards to the alternative that awaited in Oakland, this one was a letdown. The A’s had been established and October-bound. The Yankees had been in fourth place and under .500.
In the months that adopted, a revitalized Rickey hit .294 and stole 52 baggage within the the rest of the common season, then ignited the A’s with a 15-for-34 exhibiting with eight extra-base hits, 11 steals and 9 walks within the postseason, during which he was the MVP of the AL Championship Series in opposition to the Blue Jays. Oakland swept cross-bay rival San Francisco within the World Series.
“That was the earthquake year, though,” Plunk says. “So I don’t know if I was too unhappy not to be involved in that. They won the World Series, and I didn’t get to experience that. But with the earthquake … you could have lost loved ones and who knows?”
The timeline wasn’t what Plunk initially anticipated when he began his professional profession, however he lastly received to put on the pinstripes. He spent 2 1/2 seasons with the Yankees, then went on to be a central bullpen piece through the Indians’ run of excellence within the Nineteen Nineties earlier than ending his profession with the Brewers in ’99.
Henderson ended up signing a four-year, $12 million cope with the A’s after the 1989 World Series (greater than the $2.8 million common annual worth he sought from New York).
In his lengthy tenure within the bigs, Plunk confronted 829 huge league batters. The hitter he confronted greater than another was a Hall of Famer. Can you guess who it was?
Well … it was truly Cal Ripken Jr. Sorry for the fakeout.
But the hitter Plunk confronted the second most was additionally a Hall of Famer. And that was Henderson.
The total consequence was a combined bag for each. Henderson was restricted to 5 hits (just one for additional bases) in 38 plate appearances. But he additionally drew 15 walks off Plunk, good for a .526 OBP.
“I was wild, and that dude knew it,” Plunk says. “He’d just stand there. I remember one time [May 9, 1990], he came up with the bases juiced with the game tied in the bottom of the 11th … and I walked him on four straight pitches. Game over. I came in the locker room, and I’m pissed off. And Steve Balboni, who normally didn’t say too much, looked over and goes, ‘Man, you should have just drilled that dude in the back!’”
Plunk and Henderson crossed paths simply as soon as off the sector. It was throughout an offseason of their taking part in days, at a softball event in Hawaii during which they had been among the many Major Leaguers requested to return in and coach. A free trip, mainly.
Their interplay wasn’t lengthy, nevertheless it was lengthy sufficient that, in Plunk’s reminiscence, he received to listen to Henderson check with himself within the third individual, as Rickey has been recognized to do. And the 2 shared amusing about their time collectively on the transaction wire.
“We were waving to each other from the planes,” they joked.
Plunk was not thrilled in regards to the second commerce on the time it went down, however he’s come to understand his half on this little bit of baseball trivia. Given the final instability of the reduction position, a 14-season profession spent primarily within the ‘pen is kind of successful. Plunk received to pitch in 4 postseasons, compiled 1,151 innings with an above-average ERA+ (112), made greater than $10 million (per Baseball Reference), then settled into a contented retirement during which he does personal teaching on the facet.
Perhaps, although, the best testomony to Plunk’s capability is that he was twice part of a haul for a Hall of Famer.
“I’m glad the dude I got traded for was good enough to go to the Hall of Fame,” Plunk says. “It’s not like I was traded for Wally Pipp or somebody like that.”
