New York Yankees: top 3 trades with the Montreal Expos
The New York Yankees usually have the upper hand when dealing with small market teams when it comes to trades. Here are the top three trades they made with the Montreal Expos.
The New York Yankees drew the ire of other teams when they began to sign up free agents to lucrative free-agent deals. They were the consummate big market ball club who was not afraid to throw their cash around.
The Montreal Expos were long regarded as the poor little orphans of the league. Rightly so, as their final two years before relocating to Washington DC, they were owned by Major League Baseball. The Expos were the definition of a small market team.
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For a long time, the joke was the Expos were an AAAA team, one step above Triple-A. Fans called the Expos, the minor league system for other clubs, as once the talent got too expensive it was a given they would be traded off. Lurking in the shadows were the Yankees who didn’t need excuses to spend money.
Even today the running storyline is when a player becomes great, and outplays his current team and contract, the buzz is, “oh he’ll be a Yankee someday”. The Yankees are not afraid to flash the cash or pay players top dollar for their talents.
Here are top three examples of the New York Yankees swooping in and exchanging assets with the Expos.
New York Yankees: Top 3 trades with the Montreal Expos
- Yankees get Jake Westbrook, Ted Lilly, Christian Parker
- Expos get Hideki Irabu
Hideki Irabu was the crowned jewel of the Orient when his negotiating rights were offered in 1997 to the teams in Major League Baseball. The San Diego Padres won the rights to negotiate with him, but he refused to play for San Diego, stating he only wanted to play for the New York Yankees.
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The Yankees finally got their man four months after the Padres secured him and the rocky marriage began. Irabu came in overweight in the eyes of Yankee management and had a poor work ethic in the eyes of Yankee coaches. Owner George Steinbrenner famously referred to Irabu as a “fat toad”, when he failed to cover first base on a ground ball to the right side of the infield.
That was the beginning of the end, of a partnership that really didn’t work from the get-go. Prior to the 2000 season, Irabu was moved to the Expos for three young pitchers. The Expos were trying to bring in a big-name player on a team-friendly contract (and the $4M Irabu would make was considered a big payday for a cash-strapped Expos team).
Irabu struggled in Montreal just like he did in New York, only fewer people noticed. In two years, he made 14 starts and was 2-7 with a 6.69 ERA. He played one season for the Texas Rangers afterward saving 16 games as the part-time closer, then was out of the league the following year.
The return the Yankees netted had mixed results as well. Jake Westbrook was flipped for two years of David Justice (who hit 38 home runs and helped the Yankees win a World Series in 2000). Westbrook was an All-Star in Cleveland and won over 100 games in a 13-year career.
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Ted Lilly won eight games over two years for the Bronx Bombers then was flipped in a multi-team deal which landed the Yankees Jeff Weaver.
Christian Parker made one start in the majors and was shelled, then spent two years in the Yankees minor league system.
The immediate results in player productivity may not have been stellar, though the use of trading chips benefited the Yankees. They also got salary relief for Irabu and found someone to put up with his shenanigans.
New York Yankees: Top 3 trades with the Montreal Expos
- Yankees get Javier Vazquez
- Expos get Choate, Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera Expos for Javier Vazquez
Javier Vazquez was a big-time pitcher in a small-time market and was approaching free agency a couple of years down the road. The New York Yankees came-a-calling using one time prized prospect Nick Johnson as the dangling fruit in the deal.
Nick Johnson couldn’t stay healthy, couldn’t stay on the field, and therefore the Yankees tired of him. His lone year in Montreal was the same and he only hit 7 home runs. Johnson was a get on-base guy, not a power hitter, but those numbers didn’t come until after the team moved to Washington. He put together a few solid seasons with the Nationals, though was never the prospect he was once touted to be.
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Randy Choate never played for the Expos as they traded him to get a replacement for Vazquez’s spot in the rotation. Former first-round pick John Patterson was acquired and he won 4 games in Montreal that year.
Juan Rivera hit 12 home runs his one year in Montreal before being traded to the Los Angeles Angels.
Vazquez would spend just one year in New York, but he was an All-Star, winning 14 games. Vazquez would end his career with twelve straight seasons of winning 10 games, though only one of them with the Yankees. He was traded after the season in a package that netted the Yankees Randy Johnson.
New York Yankees: Top 3 trades with the Montreal Expos
- Yankees get John Wetteland
- Expos get Fernando Seguignol and $1M cash
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After the player’s strike washed away the remaining 1994 season and canceled the World Series, the division-leading Expos were forced to slash payroll. That meant parting ways with John Wetteland.
Going to the Expos was a Pedro Serrano type, Single-A ballplayer, Fernando Seguignol. Seguignol spent two uninspiring seasons in the Yankees minor leagues, hitting just four home runs, but the Expos saw something they liked.
Seguignol could never scratch out consistent playing time in the parts of four seasons with the Expos. He hit .251 with 17 career home runs in just under four hundred plate appearances.
The salary relief the Expos got from not having to pay Wetteland and the $1M cash straight to the bottom line was the key return they were looking for.
Wetteland pitched two years in New York, was an All-Star and saved 74 games. In ’96 he led the league in saves and struck out ten batters per nine innings. He saved all four wins in the 1996 World Series and earned the MVP Award. He would pitch four more years in Texas, saving 150 games giving him a career total of 330.
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The New York Yankees got huge returns on their investment for Wetteland and only parted with a lower level player and the money Steinbrenner found in his couch cushions that day. Wetteland was one of the best closers in the game at the time and he proved it on the game’s biggest stage.