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 affix 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 considering, “possibly I may keep in a single place.”
Henderson retired after the 2003 season, with a Main League-record 1,406 stolen bases and a couple of,295 runs scored. He was a legendary leadoff man and one of the electrifying gamers within the historical past of the game.
However 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 an extended profession of his personal, was one way or the other 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 this date on the 1984 Winter Conferences, then again to the Yankees when Henderson made his triumphant return to Oakland halfway via the ’89 season.
It is one of many nice transactional oddities of all time and a enjoyable level of baseball reflection. Clearly, trades occur on a regular basis, and there are occasional cases in historical past wherein 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 Corridor of Famer, nevertheless, is particularly uncommon. Sadly, Elias Sports activities Bureau was not capable of inform us if Plunk is the one participant with such a declare to Fame. But it surely’s secure to say the checklist is brief.
“No less than,” Plunk says with amusing, “I will need to have had some form of worth within the trades.”
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 at some point don the well-known pinstripes in his massive league debut. However whereas an affiliation with the Yanks had many perks — higher Minor League pay than you’d discover in most farm methods on the time and excellent instruction, to call a number of — his outlook was altered as soon as he received the lay of the land.
“Each time a place opened up on the massive league stage, the Yankees would make a blockbuster commerce,” Plunk says. “They wished well-known gamers. Within the Minor Leagues, we understood that the perfect factor that might occur 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.
In the meantime, 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.
“Most likely in 1985,” then-general supervisor Sandy Alderson would later inform MLB Commerce Rumors, “we didn’t have a full appreciation of all his skills.”
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, concentrating on packages that included not simply massive league skills just like the O’s Storm Davis and the Dodgers’ Bob Welch but in addition prime prospects. As we noticed in Los Angeles’ February 2020 deal for Mookie Betts, acquiring that form of return for only one yr of management of a longtime celebrity is just about unattainable in at this time’s recreation. However again in 1984, the A’s had been setting a framework for offers involving high-profile gamers coming into free company that different golf equipment would observe for a few years.
When the take care of the Yankees was accomplished on Dec. 5, 1984, the A’s gave up Henderson, pitcher Bert Bradley and money and landed Jay Howell (a giant league right-hander on the cusp of an All-Star season of his personal) and 4 of the Yankees’ prime 5 prospects — right-hander Jose Rijo (extensively 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 had been stoked,” Plunk says. “We’re within the Minor Leagues, in A-ball and had by no means met Rickey Henderson, however we had been thrilled to be traded for him. I understood this was the following step in my alternative to get someplace.”
With Oakland, Plunk received someplace rapidly. He was at Double-A Huntsville and Triple-A Tacoma in 1985 and up within the massive 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 Collection.
Although 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 powerful 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 Beneficial Participant Award voting in 1985. (Yanks teammate Don Mattingly really took dwelling AL MVP honors that yr. 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 keen to satisfy Henderson’s asking value of $2.8 million per yr in a brand new deal. Henderson was 30 years outdated, 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 trying to get again to the Collection stage, it was prime time to convey Rickey again to his roots. Henderson had the best to veto any commerce the Yankees offered to him, so Oakland had a leg up on the opposite suitors.
“Oakland was the one place I knew I’d wish to go,” Henderson advised the New York Instances when the deal was completed. ”I knew that if we did not come to an settlement by the All-Star break I might be a free agent anyway, and we had the chance to do it now, so I made a decision to return dwelling.”
Among the many 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 concentrating on reduction assist, Plunk figured he could possibly be concerned.
“Certainly one of our pitching coaches [Dave Duncan] advised us, ‘Oh, no one’s going anyplace,’” Plunk remembers. “The best way my thoughts works, that’s when it went, ‘Ding!’ It looks as if, why would you say something if there wasn’t one thing occurring?”
Plunk’s instinct was correct. Round 8 a.m. PT the morning of June 21, his dwelling cellphone rang.
“I used to be taking a leak,” Plunk says with amusing. “My spouse [Billie] answered the cellphone. I hear it ring and assume, ‘Man, who could possibly be calling this early?’ As a result of everyone is aware of you’re not imagined to name earlier than like 10 or 11 a.m. After which it dawned on me: ‘Immediately’s the day, dude.’”
Certainly, Alderson was on the road, informing him the deal was completed. It was Plunk, left-hander Greg Cadaret and outfielder Luis Polonia going to the Yanks for Henderson.
Whereas the primary commerce had Plunk excited concerning 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 beneath .500.
Within 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 displaying with eight extra-base hits, 11 steals and 9 walks within the postseason, wherein he was the MVP of the AL Championship Collection towards the Blue Jays. Oakland swept cross-bay rival San Francisco within the World Collection.
“That was the earthquake yr, although,” Plunk says. “So I don’t know if I used to be too sad to not be concerned in that. They received the World Collection, and I didn’t get to expertise that. However with the earthquake … you would have misplaced family members and who is aware of?”
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 in the course of 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 take care of the A’s after the 1989 World Collection (greater than the $2.8 million common annual worth he sought from New York).
In his lengthy tenure within the bigs, Plunk confronted 829 massive league batters. The hitter he confronted greater than every other was a Corridor of Famer. Are you able to guess who it was?
Properly … it was really Cal Ripken Jr. Sorry for the fakeout.
However the hitter Plunk confronted the second most was additionally a Corridor of Famer. And that was Henderson.
The general outcome was a blended bag for each. Henderson was restricted to 5 hits (just one for additional bases) in 38 plate appearances. However he additionally drew 15 walks off Plunk, good for a .526 OBP.
“I used to be wild, and that dude knew it,” Plunk says. “He’d simply stand there. I keep in mind one time [May 9, 1990], he got here up with the bases juiced with the sport tied within the backside of the eleventh … and I walked him on 4 straight pitches. Sport over. I got here within the locker room, and I’m pissed off. And Steve Balboni, who usually didn’t say an excessive amount of, appeared over and goes, ‘Man, you must have simply drilled that dude within the again!’”
Plunk and Henderson crossed paths simply as soon as off the sphere. It was throughout an offseason of their enjoying days, at a softball event in Hawaii wherein they had been among the many Main Leaguers requested to come back in and coach. A free trip, mainly.
Their interplay wasn’t lengthy, however 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 had been waving to one another from the planes,” they joked.
Plunk was not thrilled concerning 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 function, a 14-season profession spent primarily within the ‘pen is kind of a hit. 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 cheerful retirement wherein he does non-public teaching on the aspect.
Maybe, although, the best testomony to Plunk’s potential is that he was twice part of a haul for a Corridor of Famer.
“I’m glad the dude I received traded for was ok to go to the Corridor of Fame,” Plunk says. “It’s not like I used to be traded for Wally Pipp or anyone like that.”
