The 2004 Montreal Expos season was the 36th and final Major League Baseball (MLB) season for the Montreal Expos franchise competing under that name and being based in Canada. The team competed as members of the National League East. The Expos played most of their home games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, while also playing 21 home games at Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Expos finished in fifth and last place in their division, with a 67–95 record, 29 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves. After the season, the team—which had played in Montreal since its founding as part of the 1969 MLB expansion—relocated to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals, as MLB returned to Washington for the season after a 33-season absence.

Offseason

Spring training

The Expos held spring training at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida, in 2004. It was their second year of spring training at the facility.

Regular season

Opening Day lineup

Source

Season standings

National League East

Record vs. opponents

Game log

Source

Notable transactions

Roster

Final days

The final game in Montreal

Scorecard

September 29, Olympic Stadium, Montréal, Québec

Batting

Pitching

The final game as the Expos

Scorecard

October 3, Shea Stadium, Flushing, New York

Batting

Pitching

Attendance

Including both games played in Montreal and "home" games played in San Juan, the Expos drew 749,550 fans during the 2004 season, and were 16th in attendance among the 16 National League teams. Their highest attendance for the season was for their final game in Montreal on September 29, which attracted 31,395 fans to see them play the Florida Marlins, while their lowest was for a game in Montreal on May 5 against the Colorado Rockies, which drew only 3,609 fans. For games played in San Juan, the largest crowd was 16,836 for a game against the San Francisco Giants on May 22, and the smallest was a crowd of 7,436 that came to a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 9. The Expos lost one home date during the season, when the May 23 "home" game at San Juan against the Giants was rained out and rescheduled to be played as an away game in San Francisco as part of a single-admission doubleheader on August 18. The doubleheader drew 42,296.

Player stats

Batting

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases Complete offensive statistics are available here.

Pitching

Note: Pos = Position; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts Complete pitching statistics are available here.

Awards and honors

League leaders

All-Stars

2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Relocation to Washington

After several years in a holding pattern, MLB began actively looking for a relocation site for the Expos. Some of the choices included Orlando, Florida; Dayton, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Northern Virginia; Norfolk, Virginia; and Charlotte, North Carolina. In the decision-making process, Commissioner Bud Selig added Las Vegas, Nevada to the list of potential Expos homes. On September 29, 2004, MLB officially announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C. in 2005. The move was approved by the owners of the other teams in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote). In addition, on November 15, 2004, a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, ending legal moves to keep the Expos in Montreal.

Retired numbers ceremony

As a tribute to the Expos, on October 18, 2005, the Montreal Canadiens honoured the departed team by raising an Expos commemorative banner, which lists the retired numbers, to the rafters of the Bell Centre. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were at the ceremony with Youppi, who was now the Canadiens mascot. The Banner featured all of the Expos retired numbers:

Expos in the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor

On August 10, 2010, the Washington Nationals formally presented a new "Ring of Honor" at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., to honor Major League Baseball Hall of Fame players with ties to the Washington Nationals, original Washington Senators, expansion Washington Senators, Homestead Grays, or Montreal Expos. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were the former Expos honored in the Ring of Honor on that day. The Expos logo appears next to their names in the Ring of Honor. On May 9, 2015, the Nationals added former Expos (2002–2004) and Nationals (2005–2006) manager Frank Robinson to the Ring of Honor at Nationals Park.

Farm system