New York Yankees: top 3 trades with the Montreal Expos

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.

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.