On December 9th, 1976, the Rangers traded Jeff Burroughs (OF) to the Atlanta Braves for Roger Moret (P), Carl Morton (P), Adrian Devine (P), Ken Henderson (OF) and Dave May (OF). If you thought that the Rangers received little in return for the Righetti trade, they traded away one of their first stars for literally nothing in return.
Burroughs came to the Rangers with the Senators and was the nation’s first draft pick in 1969. He first came up with the Senators at age 19, and often clashed with manager Ted Williams, though Burroughs later credited Williams for teaching him to concentrate. In 1973, in his first season as the Rangers starting right fielder, Burroughs hit 30 homers and was immediately thought of as one of the premier young power hitters in the game. Burroughs followed that up by hitting .301 with 25 homers and a league-leading 118 RBI in 1974, he also won AL MVP that year. Burroughs often complained about the south wind at Arlington Stadium and he continued to strike out at a torrid pace. The Rangers felt that they could spare him. In his first year after the trade, Burroughs hit 41 homers with 114 RBI with the Braves.
Roger Moret was the “big-gun” in this trade and he played for the Rangers for 1 ½ years, going 3-4 in 25 games. The sidearming Moret’s aim for the strike zone was erratic as his personality, but when he had control of both he was a capable winner. Moret was coming off of a 14-3 season at the time of the trade, and the Rangers were looking to see more of that.
Carl Morton won the NL rookie of the Year award in 1970 for the Expos, he was never quite the same again. In fact, at the time of the trade, Morton was pitching in the minors. I don’t know if the Rangers were thinking that he would return to his form from 6 years earlier, but if they were, it was quite a stretch. Morton never played in the Majors again and died at age 39 of a heart attack after jogging.
Adrian Devine was actually a nice surprise out of this deal. He came off arm surgery in 1975 and rebounded to go 11-6 with a 3.58 ERA and 15 saves in 1977. Devine then returned to Atlanta in 1978, was then traded back to Texas in 1979 in a very complicated deal. Arm troubles were his demise in 1980.
The Rangers were looking at getting a superstar out of Ken Henderson when they made this deal. Ken was touted as Willie Mays successor when Henderson was only 19. Henderson only played in 75 games in 1977 and was then traded to Cincinnati. In those 75 games, he hit only 5 HR and 23 RBI.
Dave May also managed to stay with the Rangers for the entire 1977 season. Not that this was a good thing, May hit .241 with 7 HR and 42 RBI. May had showed some promise earlier in his career. In 1973, he hit 25 HR, 93 RBI and a .303 average. In a part-time role with the Braves in 1975, he hit 12 HR in only 203 AB”s. He dropped off again in 1976, thus prompting the Braves to trade him.
This trade boils down to one thing, the Rangers took players that they were either hoping would develop, or return to form from a few seasons back. They traded one of the best, young power hitters in the game for these guys, and not one of them panned out. Now, if Ken Henderson went on to star for the Rangers for 10 years, would I be writing this article? No way, but the fact is, the franchise took five separate chances when they made this deal, and not one of them worked out.
Remember the Rangers!
Jeremy Northrip
rangerhistory@hotmail.com