Author: Ben Nicholson-Smith

From Larry Walker to John Wetteland to Pedro Martinez, Montreal Expos talent seemed to head south as quickly as the club could develop it. By 2002, it seemed possible that the Expos were playing their final season in Montreal and the threat of contraction put the organization's future in jeopardy. So they surprised some people when they acquired an All-Star caliber player mid-way through the 2002 season.

GM Omar Minaya obtained Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew from the Indians for Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Lee Stevens.

The Canadian Press wrote that Minaya made a "stunning acquisition," and some of Colon's teammates agreed. C.C. Sabathia told the AP the move was a "big blow," a "shock."

Combine a bold GM, a franchise in peril and a division title within reach and you'll see some surprising moves.

The Expos were in the playoff race after acquiring Colon on June 27th, 2002. They trailed the Braves by 6.5 games and found themselves 5.0 games behind the Wild Card-leading Diamondbacks. At the time of the trade, many writers pointed to the Expos' rotation depth; Colon joined Javier Vazquez, Tomo Ohka and Tony Armas Jr. to form one of the Senior Circuit's deepest rotations.

Colon played well for the Expos. He pitched 117 innings of 3.31 ERA ball, allowing less than a hit per frame and striking out two men for every one he walked. The Expos won 83 games – more than they'd won since 1996 – but it wasn't enough to topple the Braves, who won 101 times.

The Indians weren't in a position to make a playoff run so, like this year and last, they dealt their ace away. But not even GM Mark Shapiro can hope his recent deadline deals turn out as well as the one he made in 2002. 

Shapiro told the AP at the time that the Indians were "clearly moving to a total rebuilding process." So how did he plan to rebuild the franchise? Start with an athletic center fielder and a left-handed ace.

Sizemore, who was 19 at the time of the trade, has combined power, speed, plate discipline and defense to become one of the league's elite players. Lee followed up his 2008 Cy Young campaign with a strong start that allowed Shapiro to obtain four Phillies prospects for him in a midseason trade.

Lee Stevens was a non factor and the Indians sent Phillips to the Reds for Jeff Stevens in a 2006 trade. Shapiro sold low on a second baseman who plays strong defense and has a 30-30 season to his name. But they acquired talent to spare for Colon, who was under team control for a year and a half after the trade.

The Expos traded Colon to the White Sox after the season. In return, they obtained Rocky Biddle, Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Liefer and cash. Minaya's gamble turned the Expos' top minor leaguers into a trio of considerably less valuable players. A playoff appearance would not necessarily have prevented the Expos from moving to D.C. after 2004, but the Bartolo Colon trade was anything but the solution to the organization's problems.

The Mets weren't particularly close to a playoff spot on the morning of July 30th, 2004. They were in fourth place in the NL East, six games out of first and ninth in the Wild Card race. That didn't stop Mets GM Jim Duquette from trading for Victor Zambrano and Kris Benson in a pair of trades that evening. For Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato, the Mets gave up Jose Diaz and Scott Kazmir.

Kazmir hadn't pitched in the majors yet, but the 20-year-old Texan already had a profile. The Mets selected him in the first round of the 2002 draft and Kazmir dominated minor league hitters, striking out 259 in 203.1 innings.

Devil Rays GM Chuck LaMar called Kazmir one of baseball's best left-handed pitching prospects and told ESPN he couldn't pass up the chance to acquire him.

"We needed to start getting our hands on some pitching that can truly beat the Red Sox and Yankees in this division," LaMar said."We think Scott Kazmir has that kind of ability."

LaMar turned out to be right. Kazmir contributed to the Rays' 2008 division title and run to the World Series past the Yankees and Red Sox. Overall, he had a 3.92 ERA in parts of six seasons with the Rays. He struck out more than a batter per inning (9.4K/9) and allowed less than a hit per inning (8.4H/9) in 834 frames, though he was susceptible to walks (4.1BB/9).

No matter how you measure it, Kazmir has been worth the $10MM or so the Rays paid him. (In case you're wondering, FanGraphs says his performance in Tampa would have cost about $70MM to replace on the free agent market.) The Rays flipped Kazmir to the Angels this summer, but they obtained Alexander Torres, Matthew Sweeney and Sean Rodriguez, so the 2004 trade still shapes today's Rays.

They made the deal with the future in mind, but Duquette thought the Mets could win in 2004. He acknowledged to the New York Times that the deal was "more of a current trade rather than a long-term trade." Five years later, that's quite the understatement.

Zambrano, who was pitching through elbow soreness at the time of the deal, appeared just three times for the Mets in 2004 due to the injury.  Two years later Zambrano was recovering from Tommy John and flexor tendon surgery, and the Mets non-tendered the righty.  He posted a 4.42 ERA in just over 200 innings with the club; he continued to be plagued by control problems when healthy.

The Mets finished 20 games below .500 with a walk-prone injured 29-year-old who was about to become expensive. The Rays finished 21 games below .500 with one of baseball's top pitching prospects under team control for six years. As any Mets fan will tell you, It's hard to find a more lopsided trade.

When the Mariners traded away the best player in the game a month into the new millennium, they didn't appear to have obtained much in return. They gave up Ken Griffey Jr.: an All-Star and Gold Glove winner every year of the 1990s and a member of the All-Century team.

At the time, Jake Meyer, Antonio Perez, Brett Tomko and Mike Cameron didn't seem like enough of a haul for Griffey. In the days following the trade, Michael Knisley of the Sporting News wrote that the Mariners "got fleeced last week more completely than Bo Peep's lost sheep at shearing time. For Junior Griffey, the man most likely to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record, the game's most perfect all-around player in the prime of his career, the Reds gave Seattle … bits and pieces, drips and drabs of major leaguers and wanna-bes."

But Mariners GM Pat Gillick was cornered because Griffey became restless and demanded a trade in November of 1999. He had just one year and $8.25MM left on his contract, so many teams had interest, but Griffey's ten and five rights allowed him to veto any deal. 

Sports Illustrated reported that Griffey gave Gillick a list of four teams to which he would accept a trade: the Braves, Astros, Mets and Reds. The Mariners were trapped; their star wanted a trade, but the team's leverage was disappearing quickly.

 "It was not," Gillick said, "an ideal situation in which to negotiate."

Months of trade talks ensued between Reds GM Jim Bowden and Gillick. The Reds wanted to keep Pokey Reese and Sean Casey. The Mariners wanted a package that would provide depth in case Alex Rodriguez left as a free agent after the season.

Ultimately, the Reds acquired Griffey for Cameron, Tomko, Perez and Meyer. They promptly signed Junior to a nine-year $116.5MM deal. Lots of money, but SI's Tom Verducci said Griffey signed for about half his market value – the M's had apparently offered $138MM over eight years the summer before.

Griffey missed significant parts of the 2001-06 seasons with a variety of injuries. Whether it was his hamstring, his calf or his wrist, Griffey always seemed to be on the DL. He hit his 400th, 500th and 600th homers in a Reds uniform, but he didn't live up to the other-worldly standards he'd established in Seattle.

Cameron played at least 147 games for the Mariners in each of the four seasons after the trade, putting up a .798 OPS and winning a pair of Gold Gloves. Tomko never became an impact player for the Mariners and neither Perez nor Meyer actually played a game for the club, but that didn't stop Seattle from winning.

The Mariners made it to the ALCS in 2000 and again a year later after the club's historic 116-win campaign. Ten offseasons ago it looked like a great deal for Cincinnati, but Griffey never led the Reds to the playoffs and the club hasn't had a winning season since 2000.  A possible silver lining: the Reds received pitcher Nick Masset in the deadline deal last year that sent Griffey to the White Sox.  Masset had a fine year in '09 and could be the Reds' closer of the future.