The ins, outs and, ultimately, tragedy of a trade
Hideki Irabu
In one of the worst deals in their 36-year existence, the Montreal Expos 24 years ago today trade highly touted pitching prospect Jake Westbrook and two players to be named later to the New York Yankees for overhyped and overweight pitcher Hideki Irabu.
Irabu wins only two games in two seasons for the Expos, while Westbrook goes on to become an All-Star, albeit later with Cleveland rather than New York.
The players to be named later for the Yankees turn out to be pitchers Christian Parker and Ted Lilly.
While Parker pitches only three innings in his lone appearance for the Yankees in 2001, Lilly – like Westbrook before him – soon will be regifted.
Jake Westbrook
After the Yankees quickly flip Westbrook to Cleveland in 2000, they send Lilly to Oakland in the middle of the 2002 season.
And, like Westbrook, Lilly goes to become an All-Star, first in 2004 for the Toronto Blue Jays and then in 2009 with the Chicago Cubs.
As for Irabu, the Expos release him late in the 2001 season. Irabu is out of the majors after the 2002 season, when he goes 3-8 in 38 appearances for Texas with a 5.74 earned-run average.
Westbrook and Lilly each last through the 2013 season with Westbrook finishing up with the St. Louis Cardinals and Lilly with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After leaving the Expos in exchange for a pitcher who would win two games for Montreal, Westbrook and Lilly combine for 235 victories, the aforementioned three All-Star selections – two for Lilly, one for Westbrook – and a World Series ring for Westbrook with the Cardinals in 2011.
Alas, this tale goes beyond the pros and cons of any trade as, in the saddest of notes, Irabu ends up taking his life in July 2011 at the age of 42.
Irabu dies less than two years after trying to make a comeback with the Long Beach Armada, a team in the lower-tier, now-defunct independent Golden League.
“There was a lot riding on his shoulders,” Bobby Valentine, Irabu’s manager in Japan during the 1995 season, says after learning of Irabu’s death.
Valentine calls Irabu “one of the pioneers” from Japan who leads others from his country to play in the major leagues.
“When Nolan Ryan saw him,” Valentine says, “he said he had never seen anything like it. There were just some days when he was as good a pitcher as I had ever seen. A fabulous arm.”