Source: Chicago Tribune by Phil Rogers Sunday, January 07, 2007
"At least team got a mulligan on Big Unit, though."
Imagine how fortunate Brian Cashman must feel this weekend. If Randy Johnson can pass a physical Monday, the New York Yankees' general manager will be getting a rare thing — a Big Unit mulligan.
It was 1989 when a team last won in a trade that brought it Johnson. That was the one that sent him to Seattle from Montreal. The two since then have been stinkers, especially the one in 1998 that cost the Houston Astros two front-line prospects, Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen, on the cusp of their big-league careers.
2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS (enlarge photo)
Randy Johnson is one of several high-dollar starting pitchers that ultimately disappointed the Yankees.
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The Yankees sent catcher Dioner Navarro and lefty Brad Halsey, a former Texas Longhorn, to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2005 deal that brought them Johnson. Now it appears they could get at least a decent return in sending him back to the Diamondbacks — 24-year-old pitchers Ross Ohlendorf and Steven Jackson, minor-league shortstop Alberto Gonzalez and reliever Luis Vizcaino.
This trade seemingly clears the way for the Yankees to re-sign Roger Clemens. It's another domino in the chain of expensive mistakes that have kept the Pinstripes chasing their tail in October.
Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News wrote that the Yankees will wind up having paid Johnson $43 million to win 34 games, none in the postseason. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.
During the last four years, Cashman has signed off on deals that cost the Yankees $146.4 million for Jose Contreras, Esteban Loaiza, Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and Johnson. Those guys have given the Yankees 96 victories, 224 starts and a combined 4.94 earned-run average.
George Steinbrenner had to pay a part of departing players' future salaries to send Contreras to the White Sox in 2004, Vazquez to the Diamondbacks in '05 and Wright to the Orioles earlier this winter. The Yankees will be on the hook for $9 million in deferred payments and $2 million in salary when the pending Johnson deal is finalized. And none of this factors in luxury taxes.
You want to know why the Yankees haven't won the World Series since 2001?
It's not Alex Rodriguez. It's the woeful performance of the starting pitchers to whom Cashman turned after allowing Orlando Hernandez, Andy Pettitte and Clemens to get away.
The common thread to the stories of these pitchers is that no one ever overcomes failure with the Yankees.
Contreras blossomed after being traded to the White Sox. Vazquez has been almost as good for the Diamondbacks and the White Sox as Johnson was for the Yankees. The difference was supposed to be Johnson's toughness in the playoffs — and he got pounded in both of his October starts for the Yankees, allowing 10 runs in 8 2/3 innings in series-changing losses to the Angels and Tigers.
