January 15th has been a surprisingly busy day for transactions throughout baseball history, particularly when it comes to trades involving big name players. We already told you about the Lee Stevens deal, but let’s take a look at a few more…
- Two years ago today the Dodgers released Andruw Jones after he agreed to restructure his contract. Jones hit just .158/.256/.249 during the first year of the two-year, $36.2MM contract he signed with LA.
- Eight years ago today the Expos traded Bartolo Colon and a minor leaguer to the White Sox for Rocky Biddle, Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Liefer, and cash. The deal came less than eight months after Montreal traded Stevens, Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore to Cleveland for Colon and the other Drew brother, Tim.
- That trade took place immediately after the White Sox acquired El Duque from the Yankees for Antonio Osuna and a minor leaguer.
- One year before the Colon swap, the Dodgers sent Gary Sheffield to the Braves for Brian Jordan, Odalis Perez, and Andrew Brown. Perez had some nice seasons in Los Angeles, but Sheffield was a monster for the Braves. He hit .319/.412/.562 with 64 homers in his two years with the team.
- The Tigers signed Cecil Fielder on this date in 1990. Prince’s father had spent the previous two seasons in Japan, and he came back to MLB with a 51 homer season in 1990 followed by a 44 homer season in 1991.
- The Reds purchased Wally Pipp from the Yankees for $7,500 on this date way back in 1926. Pipp is most famous for being held out of a game in 1925, with his replacement at first base being a 21-year-old rookie named Lou Gehrig. Pipp never got his job back.
- Some other players involved in transactions on this date: Mike Redmond, David Eckstein, John Mabry, Jose Molina, Tim Raines, Juan Uribe, and the late Rod Beck.
As a former die-hard Expos fan, I just wanna cry!
So do I !! If we had Grady instead of Peter Bergeron….
El Duque only made a few appearances for the Expos, got injured, and was back with the Yankees a 18 months later.