Pitchers Colon, Hernandez involved in three-team trade

NEW YORK -- Bartolo Colon got traded Wednesday, but not to the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees.

Instead, Colon went to the Chicago White Sox in a three-team deal that included the Yankees and provided New York with the fringe benefit of keeping Colon away from the Red Sox.

In the three-way swap, the Yankees sent pitcher Orlando Hernandez and $2 million to Chicago for reliever Antonio Osuna and minor league pitcher Delvis Lantigua. Then the White Sox packaged Hernandez with right-handed pitcher Rocky Biddle, outfielder Jeff Liefer and cash to Montreal for Colon and minor league infielder Jorge Nunez.

The Expos will be responsible only for $300,000 of Hernandez's salary next season, with the White Sox using the $2 million from the Yankees and their own money to make up the difference. Hernandez is expected to make between $4-5 million.

The architect of the deal was White Sox general manager Ken Williams, who pursued Montreal GM Omar Minaya once it became clear that the Expos would be trading either Colon or pitcher Javier Vazquez to reduce payroll.

The Yankees and Red Sox were believed to be in the best position to get Colon, who won 20 games last season for Cleveland and Montreal. But when the Yankees added Cuban free agent Jose Contreras and re-signed Roger Clemens, it created a logjam of eight starting pitchers.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman was looking to ease that glut and reduce payroll while also trying to shore up a bullpen that lost free agents Mike Stanton to the New York Mets and Ramiro Mendoza to Boston. He approached Williams, offering Hernandez and asking about Osuna and Lantigua.

Colon went 20-8 with a 2.93 ERA last season, but the Expos -- run by major league baseball -- were under orders to keep their payroll at about $40 million. He will earn $8.25 million this season, the final year of a five-year, $17.25-million contract that he signed in 1999.

So Minaya shopped Colon, who went 10-4 for the Indians and had the same record for the Expos with eight complete games and 149 strikeouts in 33 starts.

"I don't think it's a fire sale," Minaya said. "It's a payroll reduction. When you say fire sale, I think of giving players away. We're not in the process of giving players away."

Instead of Colon, the Yankees came away with two other pitchers: Osuna, a reliever who was 8-2 in 59 games with a 3.86 ERA for the White Sox last season, and Lantigua, 7-7 with a 4.38 ERA at Triple-A Charlotte and Double-A Birmingham.

Hernandez, a Cuban nicknamed El Duque, was 8-5 with a 3.64 ERA for the Yankees last season but spent considerable time on the disabled list.

Biddle was 3-4 with a 4.06 ERA in 44 games for the White Sox, and Liefer hit .230 with seven home runs and 26 RBIs in 76 games.

Nunez batted .291 at Triple-A Ottawa last season.