On Friday, veteran infielder Maicer Izturis announced his retirement from baseball. He had been in camp with the Blue Jays as a non-roster player, and he told reporters his body simply can no longer take the grind. Izturis has battled lots of injuries in recent years.
Izturis, 35, hit .269/.331/.372 (90 OPS+) with 39 home runs and 93 stolen bases in parts of 11 big league seasons with three teams. He broke into the league in 2004 with the Montreal Expos, the year before the franchise moved to Washington and became the Nationals.
With Izturis hanging up his spikes, there is one only active former Expos player left in baseball: Mets right-hander Bartolo Colon. Colon spent a half-season in Montreal in 2002, following a very famous trade between the Expos and Indians. You remember it, don't you?
To Expos: Bartolo Colon, Tim Drew
To Indians: Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, Lee Stevens
Stevens has been out of baseball since 2002 and Drew since 2004. Lee has not pitched since the middle of the 2014 season due to injury and his agent recently said it's unlikely he will pitch again. Sizemore has bounced around a bit the last few seasons and remains a free agent.
Phillips is still playing everyday with the Reds but he never actually played for the Expos. He was traded as a minor leaguer. It's worth noting both Ian Desmond and Jim Henderson were also drafted by the Expos. Like Phillips, they never actually played for the team, however. (Desmond debuted with the Nats in 2009.)
Now, more than 11 years after the franchise relocated, Colon stands alone as the only remaining active player to have once worn the rouge, bleu et blanc of the Montreal Expos.
