This article does not colour him in a good light.

It appears that by the end of his tenure as GM, the Expos were worse off than they were when he started, but some of the 2002 trades were arguably defensible. I think MLB was considering contracting the Expos after the 2002 season, so one could make the case that he was justified in going all-out to try to make the playoffs. What doesn't make sense, though, is his acquiring Cliff Floyd, only to trade him after less than a month (apparently, the Expos had fallen out of playoff contention, and he figured that if he didn't make a deal quickly, all he'd be left with would be the privilege of having Floyd for another 2 months) - wouldn't the team have been better off if he took the 2 draft picks the team would have gotten for losing a Type A free agent?

Minaya has stated outright that he felt there was going to be no team the following year in Montreal so he made trades with that mindset. On Floyd, I don't think there was any guarantee that they were going to offer him arb. They didn't even offer it to Vlad, who was far more of a no-brainer.

On Floyd, I don't think there was any guarantee that they were going to offer him arb. They didn't even offer it to Vlad, who was far more of a no-brainer.

In addition, trading Floyd probably saved the owners around 2 million dollars.

I didn't know that Minaya traded for Chris Young. Of course, he later dumped him for little.

Minaya has stated outright that he felt there was going to be no team the following year in Montreal so he made trades with that mindset.

That was really stupid of him then, if there's no team, who cares how the roster looks like? Instead of trading players for pennies on the dollar, he could have assumed there would be team and that he would fairly represent its interests. If the apocalypse comes, what's the difference if you do A or B?

I don't know, Swedish. It's hard to say what Minaya's goals were. Maybe his plan was to do his best to compete (and save baseball in Montreal by making the playoffs?). Or maybe he got the message from MLB that he should sell off the young talent? I hope I didn't sound like I thought I knew what was going on there.

No, I'm just puzzled at what he would have been aiming for in that case.

I think I stick with the theory that he was a pushover in negotiations.

Instead of trading players for pennies on the dollar, he could have assumed there would be team and that he would fairly represent its interests.

This is equivalent to saying screw the fans, we'll sell them down the river to benefit the fans in some other city, JUST like was being done with the team as a whole.

Minaya didn't do a lot of things right in Montreal, but as an Expos fan I will always thank him for his approach with the 2002 team - to do whatever he could for the Montreal fans. I was actively trying to distance myself from the team then, knowing that that way the eventual destruction of the Expos would be less painful that way, but 2002 was still a fun ride, even at a bit of a distance.

It was one of the two great heroic acts of the Last Days of the Expos (the other was when Jose Vidro and Brian Schneider brought the players together in 2003 to protest against MLB's arbitrary treatment of them (and to a lesser degree the Montreal fans)).

The point of the deals was that everybody knew Minaya was over a barrel and didn't have a mandate past the end of the season. He tried just about everything to bring good players in for the short term, the Colon deal for one was the best he could get.

The crowning indignity IMO was in 2003 when MLB told Minaya that the Expos couldn't have September call-ups because there wasn't enough money for call-ups. How much money would they be talking about here? I've seen $50,000 cited as the cost, but I assumed it would be the pro-rated major league minimum salary multiplied by the number of players called up. In any case, it would have been chump change, even to the Expos. The Expos were tied for the wild-card lead on August 28th and 3 games out by the end of the month.

As no one else has yet, I feel the need to credit Rear Admiral Piazza with a fine-tuned and subtle response. Well-played.

Yeah, that no call-up business was pure ####.

They were running out Ron Calloway, Endy Chavez or both, every single day in August and September, and they were absolutely killing the team, and I remember Terrmel Sledge was leading the PCL in hitting or some such thing, and they couldn't bring him up in September after the PCL season was over, for the sake of $50,000, so he just went home. It just about killed me.

I can't see excusing Minaya for the Colon trade, even if he did think the team was getting contracted. That still isn't an excuse to overpay - he could have saved a piece or two from that deal in order to acquire another Colon-like piece, for instance. Say you're given $1000, set loose in a mall, and told you have 10 minutes to spend as much as you like, but must return the unspent portion. Even if you REALLY want an iPod, why offer the entire $1,000 for one to the guy at the Apple store even if they only cost $300? Unless Minaya got psychic pleasure from doing deals, that trade STILL makes no sense.

Anyway, he wasn't even acting like the team was going to be sold. Why turn around and trade Floyd for two crappy Boston prospects less than three weeks later? Essentially, if we assume Minaya operated under the scenario I described, that means he paid $500 for a $300 iPod, listened to two songs, and then sold it to someone at the mall a few minutes later for $150 (despite knowing he had to give the money back). Huh?

I think Omar has gotten a LOT better as a general manager, but those days in Montreal were ugly.

I would just like to go on record and state how much I like the phrase "Chequered Record." Its fun to say out loud - even better with a New York or Boston accent.

Carry on.

I have to tell you all, as a Met fan I get nervous whenever I hear some idiotic rumor involving an "established" SP and the Mets are on the losing side of the hypthetical trade, that Colon trade is enough to really creep me out.

June 27, 2002: Traded by the Cleveland Indians with Tim Drew to the Montreal Expos for Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore.

Colon was an established SP (whom the radar gun LOVED btw) coming off full season ERA+ marks of 129, 127, 129 and 111, with a 177 in 116 ip at the time of the trade. He's been erratic since, and pretty bad THIS year, but we forget that at the time he was just about as highly regarded as someone like Carlos Zambrano is now.

Drew was a 24 year old former 1st round draft pick, 8-4 3.27 ERA in AAA, at the time of the trade.

Lee Stevens was a 35 year old piece of stale toast
Brandon Phillips was the BIG prospect in the deal, who flamed out and some times as an enigma before righting the ship in Cincy.
Cliff Lee was a 24 year old former 4th round pick, who quite frankly was vastly outperfromng Drew in the minors- Drew's K/9 and K/bb seemed to degrade every year out of high school- even while successful in AAA his K rate looked unsustainably low there against AAA hitters, Lee was striking out well more than a batter an inning in the minors, 105/23 in 86 AA innings.
Sizemore? other than 172 ab in the Carolina League his numbers were pretty unimpressive, he was a toolsy guy who had basically showed no production. He dramatically improved almost immediately after being traded.

Omar in hindsight lost the trade on almost every conceivable level. The only positive was getting rid of the rest of Lee Steven's salary. EVERY other player he traded away has produced more value than the few months of Colon that Omar got.

Minaya didn't do a lot of things right in Montreal, but as an Expos fan I will always thank him for his approach with the 2002 team - to do whatever he could for the Montreal fans.

It was great, wasn't it?

I was by the radio every night listening the games during that run. The atmosphere at the Stade was electric as well. I've never hard 10,000-14,000 people make so much noise.

Minaya didn't do a lot of things right in Montreal, but as an Expos fan I will always thank him for his approach with the 2002 team - to do whatever he could for the Montreal fans.

Why? The montreal fans didnt do anything to support the team.

I generally think these trade analysis articles aren't worth all that much.