July 30, 2004- The New York Mets traded Jose Diaz and Scott Kazmier to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Bartolome Fortunato and Victor Zambrano.
Kazmir was drafted in the first round of the 2002 draft with the 15th pick by the Mets. He dominated the minor leagues and had Mets’ fans salivating about their future left-handed ace.
Then he was traded.
August 23, 2004 – Less than one month after the trade, Kazmir made his Major League debut for the Rays in Seattle at just 20-years-old. In a sign of things to come he went five scoreless and gave up only four hits to a Mariners team that included the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Edgar Martinez, and Raul Ibanez.