Current Major League Baseball stars who played for the Burlington Indians include C.C. Sabathia, the New York Yankees (and, formerly the Cleveland Indians) pitcher who won the 2007 Cy Young Award, Bartolo Colón, the Los Angeles Angels pitcher who won the 2005 Cy Young Award, and Manny Ramírez, Most Valuable Player in the Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series championship.
On October 3, 2008, he was traded, as the player to be named later, as the culmination of a transaction that sent Rob Bryson and Matt LaPorta to the Cleveland Indians for C.C. Sabathia on July 7.