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BREAKING NEWS: AZ & NY agree on Big Unit deal


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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1954122

 

Sources:  Teams working on final details

ESPN.com news services

 

NEW YORK -- Arizona has agreed to terms that would send Randy Johnson to the Yankees.

 

The paperwork has not yet been submitted to the baseball commissioner's office, but that is the next step for the deal to be finalized.

 

Peter Gammons reported earlier Thursday that the on-again, off-again trade would be completed once the teams agree on the amount of money and the minor leaguers to be included in the deal.

 

The deal will send pitcher Javier Vazquez, catching prospect Dioneer Navarro, at least one other prospect and about $8 million to the Diamondbacks in exchange for the 41-year-old lefty. The Yankees are including left-handed pitcher Brad Halsey in the deal and the Diamondbacks still want third baseman Eric Duncan, although "he might not make our top 10 prospect list," one team official told Gammons.

 

According to Gammons' sources, Arizona will not immediately deal Vazquez to another team, but will continue to talk to interested teams, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit and Texas.

 

On Wednesday, Yankees president Randy Levine and incoming Arizona chief executive officer Jeff Moorad discussed prospects and money for the second consecutive day.

 

The New York Daily News, quoting anonymous sources, reported for Wednesday's editions that Johnson had informed several of his Diamondback teammates that he was going to the Yankees.

 

Once a deal is agreed upon, the Yankees would then have to work out a contract extension for Johnson. According to the Daily News' sources, the discussion has been to add two years to Johnson's deal at $16 million each year.

 

The Yankees also are under the impression that Johnson has told Arizona officials that if they do not trade him by Friday, he will stay put and not waive his no-trade clause, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

 

"I don't think Randy's drawn any lines in the sand or given any kind of ultimatum," Barry Meister, one of Johnson's agents, told the newspaper.

 

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has said the Yankees are "not out shopping Javy Vazquez" and said the pitcher would be moved only to obtain Johnson. Vazquez, who struggled during the second half of last season -- his first with New York since being acquired in a 2003 offseason trade -- said last week that it would be a mistake for the Yankees to move him.

 

"We've had clubs interested in Javy Vazquez," Cashman said, "and there's only one situation we might consider moving him in."

 

The Diamondbacks remain committed to making all major personnel decisions by the end of the year or in early January. In the meantime, the team is not out looking for a third team to make the Johnson trade to the Yankees work, Arizona managing partner Ken Kendrick said.

 

Johnson is due $16 million in the final year of his contract with Arizona and has indicated that he wants a trade to the Yankees. The Diamondbacks, though, will accept a trade only if it fits in the team's plans to immediately return to contention after its disastrous 2004 season, Kendrick said.

 

"We're going to be sensitive to [Johnson's] interests," Kendrick said, "but we're not going to make a decision that we don't believe is in the interest of the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks come first."

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