Dempster and Floyd Traded

Amid Commissioner Bud Selig’s latest doomsday forecasts, none of which seemed quite as imminent Thursday as he had made them sound Wednesday, two of baseball’s most troubled teams--the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos--joined the Cincinnati Reds in a three-way trade involving 11 players.

The Marlins, by trading outfielder Cliff Floyd to Montreal and pitcher Ryan Dempster to Cincinnati, seemed to revive memories of former owner Wayne Huizenga’s payroll and roster decimation of his 1997 World Series winner, but that may not be the case.

The Expos, who recently acquired pitching ace Bartolo Colon from the Cleveland Indians and remain in playoff contention, continued to snub their uncertain future by including two legitimate pitching prospects in a five-player package for Floyd, who is eligible for free agency at the end of the season.

This is the way it went down:

The Marlins traded Dempster, their opening day pitcher the last two years but an overall disappointment, to Cincinnati for outfielder Juan Encarnacion, infielder Wilton Guerrero, minor league pitcher Ryan Snare and cash.

They then traded Floyd, Guerrero, pitching prospect Claudio Vargas and slightly more than $1 million--requiring Selig’s approval--to the Expos for pitcher Carl Pavano, reliever Graeme Lloyd, utility man Mike Mordecai and the two valued pitching prospects: Justin Wayne and Don Levinski, whom sources said is the player to be named.

With the cash exchange, the deal was a financial wash for the Marlins and Expos.

However, it was unlikely the Marlins were going to meet Floyd’s free-agent terms, they got out from under the remainder of his $6.6-million salary this year and, in Encarnacion, 26, acquired a potential long-term replacement who was having something of a breakthrough season with 16 homers and 51 runs batted in.

In addition, Wayne was the Expos’ No. 1 draft choice out of Stanford in 2000, and Levinski was their second pick in 2001.

It’s a chance for Florida owner Jeffrey Loria to recoup an investment he made as the Expos’ owner.

He gave Wayne a $2.95-million signing bonus and Levinski an $850,000 bonus.

With no stadium initiative and the lowest attendance south of Montreal, the Marlins may go on to unload anyone and everyone (they have had discussions with the Dodgers involving second baseman Luis Castillo and pitcher Brad Penny with nothing imminent), but club President David Samson said, “this is not a white flag by any stretch.”

He added that the “definition of a fire sale is when you trade players for the purpose of driving down your payroll, and that didn’t happen here.

“I mean, you make trades trying to get better for now and the future, and I think we’ve done that.”

Floyd, who began his career in Montreal, returns with a .287 average, 18 homers and 57 RBIs. He didn’t buy Samson’s account, saying his departure smacked of the initial step in a 2002 capitulation by a team on the fringe of the wild-card race in the National League.

“It’s a sorry situation,” he said. “They’re going to get everybody aggravated and everybody will want out.”

The Expos, meantime, continue to put it all on the line this year--not knowing if they’ll be back in Montreal next year, relocated to Washington or in the contraction scrap heap.

Hanging tough in the NL’s wild-card and East division races, they gave up one of baseball’s most highly regarded young shortstops (Brandon Phillips) in the Colon deal, and two of their top three pitching prospects for Floyd. But General Manager Omar Minaya called Vargas a comparably talented pitching prospect and, in “all of our trades, I’ve tried to make the team better this year and in the future, as well. There may be some uncertainty, but I think people had the wrong perception about what we could do [as a team operated by the commissioner’s office] and would do.”

The Reds, who began the second half only two games behind St. Louis in the NL Central, have been operating with a recycled rotation of Joey Hamilton, Jimmy Haynes, Elmer Dessens and Chris Reitsma. Dempster, Florida’s franchise leader with 42 wins, goes right to the forefront, although he is 5-8 with a 4.79 earned-run average and scouts keep waiting for him to fulfill his talent.

“Although we had to give up Encarnacion and Guerrero, who have contributed to our success, we couldn’t pass an opportunity to get a 25-year-old pitcher who has the potential to be a No. 1 or No. 2 starter for years to come,” said Cincinnati General Manager Jim Bowden, who acknowledged that there is more of an urgency now for Ken Griffey Jr. to get healthy and stay healthy but that the development of young outfielders Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns made it a little easier to trade Encarnacion.

All three teams are gambling, as is any club trading before the July 31 non-waiver deadline, that the second half won’t be interrupted by a work stoppage, but as Bowden said, “we’re focused on the race and think this improves our chances.”

Of the 11 players who changed uniforms, Lloyd, the veteran relief pitcher, had to be the most bewildered.

He rejoins an owner whom he accused of having “lied to me more than once” when Loria owned the Expos.

In addition, Lloyd’s contract listed 12 teams to which he could not be traded, including the Marlins. However, the covenant was not renewed by the required date, a technical failure that Expo officials said was the fault of agent Ron Shapiro, and they didn’t hesitate including him in the trade, a shock to the unhappy pitcher.