Indians Lookback: The Tribe Move Ace Bartolo Colon to Montreal in a Shocking 2002 Trade

It was a trade that had Indians fans fuming, as in July of 2002 the club moved their ace, Bartolo Colon, to the Expos for three minor league players and Major Leaguer Lee Stevens. It was a trade that turned around the whole franchise as the club rebuilt and used parts of the deal moving Colon to later on deal for even more players, some who still impact the team to this day.

The Cleveland Indians were at a crossroads in the 2002 season. They were coming off a 91-win season in 2001, and despite a first-round exit to the Seattle Mariners, they felt good about where they were at as a franchise.

Charlie Manuel, the likeable manager who had taken over for Mike Hargrove, and the rest of the team were confident that they would take a step forward in 2002.

Little did they know by June of that season how different the team would look.

The team was not playing up to the level they had when they won the AL Central in 2001, and they had tough decisions to make with two superstars on the team, Jim Thome and Bartolo Colon.

Thome was set to reach free agency in the offseason, and Colon after the 2003 campaign.

Like it is today, there was little to think that the Indians could keep one, much less two very good players who were set to hit the open market over two seasons.

As they normally do, the Indians front office was staked with trying to keep the team competitive, while also looking around the Majors to see if they could find a trading partner for either Thome or Colon.

Thome was a homegrown talent who had been the most popular player on the roster. By 2002 he had been with the franchise 12 seasons, and with a season he slammed 52 homers he had taken over the top spot all-time for homers for the Indians.

Trading Thome would not have sat well with the fans, and there was a feeling that they could make a run at the slugger even in free agency.

When it came to Colon, he was another product of good scouting by the Tribe, as he was picked up as an amateur free agent in 1993.

Colon breezed through the minors, and by April 1997 he made his debut with the Indians. In 97 he started 17 games, going 4-7 as he went through some growing pains as a rookie.

By 1998, he was ready to become a force in the rotation, as he went 14-9, dropping his ERA to 3.71.

The team got past Boston in the ALDS winning the series 3-1, and then Colon won a game in the ALCS against the New York Yankees, but the team eventually fell in six games four games to two.

There was a lot of hope with Colon as part of the roster, and again he was good in 1999, finishing four in the AL Cy Young voting, as he won 18 games with just five losses.

Colon struggled in the postseason against the Red Sox, going 0-2 as the team lost the series three games to two.

The next two seasons Colon went 29-20 as the Tribe missed the playoffs in 2000, but rallied to make it to the playoffs under Manuel in 2001.

In the ALDS against the Mariners Colon went 1-1 with a 1.84 ERA in two starts, but in game five the team fell short, and they were erased from the postseason in a tough loss in Seattle.

Colon though was still regarded as one of the best pitchers in the American League, and as the team entered 2002 they were hopeful that the pitcher would be part of a rotation that would lead them back to the playoffs.

It was always in the back of the team’s mind though that Colon was going to be a free agent at the end of the 2003 season, and that if things got tough during the season, they could put the pitcher on the market for a deal.

The season started out well as the Indians sat in first place on April 19, but little did they know it was the final time they would be in that position.

The Tribe started 11-5, but by the end of the month were .500 at 13-13, and ended May two games under .500 at 26-28.

By then the rumblings of moving Colon were getting hotter and hotter, and general Mark Shapiro, who had been in the role for just seven months by that time, had a tough decision to make on if moving Colon was the right thing to do.

By the final week of June the Indians knew that winning the division was not going to happen, as they sat eight games out of first, six games under .500 at 37-43.

Moving Colon was the best decision for the franchise, as the hope was moving the ace would not only help rebuild for the next few seasons, but also they felt like they had another ace in youngster C.C. Sabathia.

They also had confidence that Danys Baez and Ryan Drese would continue to grow and be a big part of the rotation for the future.

The team fielded a number of offers, but the best offer in their eyes came from Montreal, where the Expos were lining up for a run to compete in the National League.

They finally pulled the trigger on Thursday, June 27, moving Colon in the afternoon to Montreal in a six-player deal.

The Indians sent Colon, along with minor leaguer Tim Drew for first basemen Lee Stevens, and three prospects – Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee.

The news of moving Colon was not well received, with the harshest words coming from shortstop Omar Vizquel, who said that the team lost “the next Bob Feller” in Colon.

At the time of the deal, Colon was 10-4 with a 2.55 ERA. In Montreal he had the same mark, 10-4, with a 3.31 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 117 innings.

The Expos though missed the postseason, and now they were in a position where they needed to try and figure out if they could contend in free agency after the 2003 season to keep Colon, likely knowing it was not going to happen as the team needed to reduce payroll.

Montreal went on the offensive looking for a trading partner for Colon, and eventually in January of 2003 they pulled off a three-team deal with the White Sox and Yankees in which Colon ended up in Chicago.

Colon’s one season in Chicago was average at best, going 15-13 with a 3.87 ERA in 34 starts. He again was on the move after the season as a free agent, inking a four-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Indians on the other hand made even more changes to their franchise, as manager Charlie Manuel was on the move, fired July 1 2002 in favor of Joel Skinner.

Manuel wanted a long term deal, and Shapiro said he wasn’t in a position with the team in a rebuild to do that, giving the keys for the remainder of 2002 to Skinner.

Stevens, part of the six-player deal coming to the Indians, played in 53 games for the Tribe, hitting just .222 with five homers and 26 RBI.

The three minor league prospects that came to Cleveland made the deal a win for the Indians, as all three would have big Major League impacts over the years.

Sizemore was a star in the making, and in 2004 he made his debut for the Indians, playing in 43 games that season for the Tribe, hitting .246.

He spent eight seasons with the Indians, and while many will remember him for a myriad of injuries that derailed his career, he also had moments where he was the face of the franchise.

Sizemore made the All-Star teams in 2006, 07 and 08, and his best season came in 2006, when he hit .290 with 28 homers and 76 runs batted in.

He went on to hit .277 with 24 homers in 2007, and in 2008 clubbed 33 homers with 90 RBI, finishing the season with a .268 average.

In 2009, 10 and 11 injuries stopped Sizemore, and he was only able to play in 210 games in those three seasons, including just 33 in the 2010 campaign.

The Indians were patient with Sizemore, keeping him on the roster when some may have decided the injuries were just too much.

He attempted a number of comebacks that fell short, and he left the organization after the 2013 season, playing with Philadelphia and Boston in 2014.

Clearly he was not the same player, and he walked away from the game at the age of 32 in 2015, playing that season with both the Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays.

Phillips was one of the toughest pills to swallow for the Indians, a player who wound up with a solid Major League career, but one that couldn’t do it in Cleveland.

The second basemen just never turned the corner with the Tribe, and by 2005 after basically one season with the Indians and a number in the minors, the Indians were ready to move on.

He played in 112 games for the Indians in 2003, hitting just .208 with six homers and 33 RBI. The team felt he needed more time in the minors, but by 2005 decided it was time to part ways with the 24-year-old.

They moved him to the Cincinnati Reds for a ‘player to be named later,’ who would end up being Jeff Stevens, who never played a Major League game for the Indians.

Phillips thrived in Cincinnati, as he was a three-time all-star and four-time Gold Glove winner. He hit a career average of .279 with the Reds with 171 homers, staying with the Reds for 11 seasons.

Finally there’s the saga of Lee, who pitched for the Indians from 2002 to 2009, and even won a Cy Young award with the Tribe in 2008 after going 22-3.

It took quite awhile to get there, as Lee showed plenty of promise at the Major League level, winning 18 games in 2005.

By 2007 he struggled, going just 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA in 16 starts, and was kept off the team’s playoff roster.

It was a bitter pill for Lee, who came back the following season with one of the best seasons on the mound in Indians history, winning 22 games with four complete games and a pair of shutouts.

Lee didn’t last long after the Cy Young season, as by the trade deadline of 2009 he was on the move to the Phillies, for four players who the team felt would eventually develop and help their minor and major league teams.

The four players included pitcher Carlos Carrasco, infielder Jason Donald, catcher Lou Marson and pitcher Jason Knapp.

As all Indians fans know, Carrasco would end up being the gem of the four players, as he has been with the Indians for 10 seasons, entering his 11 in 2020.

It’s amazing to think of all the players over the years in some way connected to the Colon deal, and that Colon was still pitching in 2018 at the age of 45.

In his 21 seasons in the Majors, Colon racked up 212 wins with 188 losses and an ERA of 4.18, making 552 career starts.

Maybe his most memorable moment of his career came in May of 2016 when with the New York Mets he launched his only career homer.

Colon has always been one of the most polarizing characters in the game, and his career which started with the Indians is one that has had as many twists and turns as any in all of baseball.