the phillies traded him to the new york mets on july 27, 2001 for dennis cook and turk wendell. he made 11 starts (and 1 relief appearance) for the mets and was 3-2 with a 4.61 era, and started the first game played by the mets after the september 11 attacks versus the braves at shea stadium on september 21. chen was traded again on april 5, 2002 to the montreal expos (with luis figueroa, saul rivera and dicky gonzalez) for phil seibel, scott strickland and matt watson. he made 15 appearances (4 starts) for the expos and was 2-3 with a 6.99 era.