Burroughs was selected by the Washington Senators with the first overall pick in the June 1969 draft. Late in the year, he joined the Senators at age of 19. Considered a "good bat-no field" kind of player, Burroughs was a considerable slugging threat during his playing days. Defensively, he was capable but slow. In four full seasons with the Texas Rangers, Burroughs averaged 25.5 home runs a year with a high of 30 homers in. His most productive season came in, when he batted.301 with 25 home runs and a league-leading and career-high 118 RBIs. He was voted the American League MVP, making him one of only seven overall number-one draft picks to win the MVP title and the first Ranger to win the award. During the 1974 season, Burroughs was at the center of the violent Ten Cent Beer Night debacle at Cleveland Stadium, where Burroughs was one of the targets of thrown objects and a few punches by unruly and inebriated Cleveland fans, in a game that was forfeited to Texas. Burroughs was selected an All-Star in both 1974 with the Rangers and 1978 as a member of the Atlanta Braves, when he entered the All-Star break with a National League-leading.324 batting average. Burroughs was also named AL Player of the Year and selected as an OF on the AL All-Star team by The Sporting News his MVP season of 1974. He was acquired by the Braves in a five-for-one trade that sent Ken Henderson, Dave May, Roger Moret, Adrian Devine, Carl Morton and $200,000 to the Rangers on December 9, 1976. As a member of the Braves, in, Burroughs collected 114 RBIs and hit 41 home runs, the latter number surpassed only by Cincinnati Reds outfielder George Foster. Burroughs had fans who maintained a large banner below the right field deck titled "Jeff's Jackpot", which displayed his home run total for the season plus one. Late in his career, Burroughs was still a valuable hitter, being used mainly as a DH and pinch hitter. Burroughs played his final year with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1985 after being purchased by them. In 86 games, he had 49 hits and 19 runs with six home runs and 28 RBIs along with 36 strikeouts and 34 walks. He batted.257 with a.366 OBP. His final regular season game was on October 6, 1985, batting as a DH. He went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in an 8-0 loss. He made his first and only appearance in a postseason game, having one at-bat in the ALCS that year, batting in Game 7 in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals as a pinch hitter, which resulted in a ground out. After he retired, Burroughs later coached his son's Little League team, the Long Beach All-Stars; with Sean as their star player, these teams won the Little League World Series in both 1992 and 1993, winning the former by forfeit after their opponents were found to have used no fewer than 14 ineligible players and the latter 3–2 over Panama to be the first American team to repeat as champion and only the third city to ever do so after Monterrey, Mexico and Seoul, South Korea.
