CHICAGO -- Since the Florida Marlins traded two of their highest-paid players, first baseman Derrek Lee wonders what else the club's front office is up to.

"It makes you question their motives and the direction they're going,'' Lee said Friday before the Marlins prepared to play Chicago in their first game since trading outfielder Cliff Floyd and pitcher Ryan Dempster. "There are probably going to be more moves made. Nothing is going to be surprising.''

In separate deals made Thursday, the Marlins traded Floyd to Montreal and Dempster to Cincinnati. Floyd, who is expected to become a free agent after the season, was an All-Star and the team's MVP in 2001. Dempster is the Marlins' all-time winningest pitcher.

In return, Florida received outfielder Juan Encarnacion and infielder Mike Mordecai, along with pitchers Graeme Lloyd and Carl Pavano. Mordecai and Lloyd are veterans, but Pavano and Encarnacion are 26 and a few years from free agency.

Lee said he didn't understand the deals.

"Guys get traded. It happens. But if you're going to make a deal, don't just make a 'wash' trade,'' Lee said. "We got good players, but how long are these guys going to be with us?''

Lee scoffed when asked to respond to team president David Samson's assertion that the Marlins are not having "a fire sale.''

"I'm upset because they told us they were going to move forward, not backward,'' Lee said. "I don't see us moving forward.''

Catcher Charles Johnson, who along with Floyd was a member of Florida's 1997 World Series champion team, said he could not figure why the team didn't try harder to keep one of its best players.

"The upsetting part about it is that when you have a star player, you want to see an effort by the team to keep him,'' Johnson said. "If you're really thinking about winning, you wish things would have been worked out.''

Johnson, who is in the second season of a 5-year, $35 million deal, said he expects to stay with the Marlins no matter what.

"I didn't want to be part of a team that got rid of a lot of guys. But I'm going to be here. I'm not in a mood to uproot my family,'' Johnson said.

Outfielder Preston Wilson said the players were misled.

"We were told this was not going to happen,'' Wilson said. "We were hoping to add players -- we're only one game behind Montreal -- but we got rid of one of our cornerstones and one of our consistent starters.

"It comes down to economics. Finance.''

Wilson, who is signed through 2005, said he would not be upset or surprised if he were traded.

"I'm not saying I want to go,'' Wilson said. "But if it happens ....''