After a very good rookie season in 1946, his performance tailed off so badly in 1947 that he was sold off to the Pirates....and returned after posting a 9.00+ ERA in 10 games.
He recovered in 1948 for the Dodgers enough for the Giants to purchase his rights in 1949, but a 4.92 ERA and a 2:1 walk to strikeout ratio for that season ended his time up top. His Baseball-Reference page ends his transaction section there, but he was involved in a few more deals, we found.
For 1950, Behrman went to Oakland in a very interesting deal, according to the Reading Eagle of Apr, 2, 1950:
On Hank Behrman (and Roy Zimmerman, formerly of the Yankees’
farm system)…
“Both were released to Oakland of the Pacific Coast League
by the National League Club.”
“Durocher said that by sending Behrman and Zimmerman to
Oakland, the Giants have obtained an option on purchasing Bill Taylor,
left-handed hitting outfielder, at the end of the current PCL championship
season.”
So the deal was for selling Behrman and the formerly-blackballed (for jumping to the Mexican League) Zimmerman to independent Oakland, Leo Durocher and the Giants would get right of first refusal on Taylor, who they later DID purchase. Taylor has an interesting set of transactions too, we will get to them later.
Behrman plays in 1951 in three places, Oakland, San Francisco and AA Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma trip must have been a look-see, because otherwise the next two deals I found make no timeline sense.
In 1951, Behrman goes from independent Oakland, to the Yankees' San Francisco farm team. From the Ellensburg Daily Record of Apr. 11, 1951:
“San Francisco’s cellar-dwelling Seals shelled out ‘in
excess of $10,000’ yesterday for a righthander who earned 17 victories for
their cross-bay rivals, the Oakland Acorns, last year.”
“He is Hank Behrman…”
Despite the trip to Oklahoma City, of which I was unable to find a reason, Behrman is still San Francisco property when he is sold to Toledo, of the White Sox system. From the Toledo Blade of Feb. 27, 1952:
“The Mud Hens, whose financial troubles were slated to be
ironed out today, continued to move on the pitching front by the purchase of
Hank Behrman, former major league right-hander, from San Francisco.”
Unfortunately those financial problems were NOT totally ironed out and the team moved to Charleston during the season (by American Association mandate). After one more sub-par season on the mound, Behrman's career was over. SABR has a nice biography of Behrman you should check out.
goldenrankings.com
Zimmerman from
www.vintagecardprices.com
Taylor from
www.baseball-almanac.com
In that 1950 deal, Oakland also got Ray Noble and George Bamberger on optional assignments by the Giants.
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