Former Dodgers Minor Leaguer, 7-Year Major League Veteran, Dies at 43
Sean Burroughs, a veteran of seven major league seasons who spent one year in the Dodgers’ minor league system, died Wednesday according to multiple reports. He was 43.
The news was first relayed on social media via Chase Kaesman:
Burroughs first rose to stardom as a young slugger and pitcher on a Long Beach team that advanced to the Little League World Series in 1992 and 1993. He continued to dominate at Long Beach Wilson High School, from which he was selected by the San Diego Padres with the ninth overall pick in the 1998 draft.
Burroughs’ success at the Major League Baseball level was sustained, but modest. From 2002-06, he batted .280 with 11 home runs and 134 RBIs for the Padres and Tampa Bay Rays. As a result of a leg injury he sustained while with the Padres, Burroughs was out of baseball from 2008-10, a period during which he struggled with sobriety.
According to a 2012 article on TwinCities.com,
He signed a free-agent deal with Seattle for 2007 but walked away from baseball after four games at Class AAA Tacoma.
Burroughs called it a “premature retirement.”
“I went into a downward spiral, and I think I lost the love of it,” he said before quickly rethinking that statement.
“I really don’t think I really lost the love of the game. I just started to love other things away from the field, and it took away from my aspirations and my dreams,” he said. “So I had to clean myself up and do what I had to do, and everything started coming back again.”
— via John Shipley of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press
Clean and sober, Burroughs returned to the major leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2011, then spent the 2012 season with the Minnesota Twins. His time in the Dodgers’ organization consisted of 57 games with Double-A Chattanooga in 2013.
Future Dodgers Yasiel Puig, Joc Pederson, Ross Stripling, Pedro Baez and Yimi Garcia were among Burroughs’ minor league teammates that year. Burroughs turned to independent baseball to continue his playing career before retiring in 2017.
According to his LinkedIn page, Burroughs had obtained his EMT license in 2018 and had aspirations of working in emergency services. He had been working as a Security Supervisor for Allied Universal since 2018. In a tragic twist, Burroughs was coaching his son’s Little League team when he collapsed and died, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale:
Dodgers Nation sends its condolences to Burroughs’ family and friends.
Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
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