RealGM Baseball: Feature Article - Grading The Deal: Johnson Goes Back To Arizona

	More from RealGM NBA: Warriors Re-Sign Monta To Multi-Year Deal NFL: Boldin Says He Won't Re-Sign With Cardinals NHL: Blackhawks Trade St. Pierre To Bruins For Pelletier
Index News Scores & Statistics Team Columns Transactions Trade Tracker MLB Forum RealGM Fantasy

Feature Article

Feature Article Archives

11th May, 2008
An Uphill Climb For Howard

3rd May, 2008
Slumps 'R Us

Full Archive

MLB Columns

RealGM Poll

Which player would you rather have on your team?

Hamilton
Volquez

Poll Archives

Sponsors

Offering the most sought after MLB tickets including top Yankees tickets, Red Sox tickets, Chicago Cubs tickets and all concert tickets for shows nationwide.

Grading The Deal: Johnson Goes Back To Arizona

Authored by Brandon Contest - 11th January, 2007 - 11:06 pm

Current Featured Columns

The Proper All-Star Send Off

The storybook ending was there. With the crowd in Yankee Stadium at full throat, Mariano Rivera marched out to the mound with a victory in his sights.

Andrew Perna. 18th July, 2008.

2008 MLB Draft Big Board

The MLB Draft is almost here and names like Pedro Alvarez, Aaron Crow and Gordon Beckham will soon be household.

Douglas Benton. 3rd June, 2008.

A Closer Look: Old vs. New

How has the decision to let Hunter walk and trade Johan panned out for Minnesota in the early going of 2008?

Alex Halsted. 30th May, 2008.

Who Has Been Most Valuable To His Team In 2008?

Last year we created the Hands on Runs formula to determine how much weight an individual player carries in his line-up. Through the first part of May, which players have been most valuable?

Christopher Reina. 6th May, 2008.

Grading The Deals: Guillen To K.C., Riske To Milwaukee

The Royals have been major players in the free agent market, making a big run at Andruw Jones while signing Jose Guillen, but they did lose David Riske to the Brewers.

Douglas Benton. 6th December, 2007.

RealGM Search

The Yankees have traded Randy Johnson back to Arizona ending the future Hall of Famer's very disappointing career in pinstripes. The Yankees sent The Big Unit and $2 million to Arizona for reliever Luis Vizcaino and three minor leaguers.

Vizcaino is a 32-year old right hander who went 4-6 last season with an ERA of 3.58 in 70 appearances. He has a career record of 25-23 and a 4.24 ERA in eight seasons. The three minor leaguers included in the deal were right handed pitchers Ross Ohlendorf, and Steven Jackson, and shortstop Alberto Gonzalez, all of whom are 24 years old. Ohlendorf, went 10-8 with a 3.29 ERA at double A Tennessee, and Jackson went 8-11 with a 2.64 ERA also at Tennessee. Gonzalez, a right-handed hitter, batted .290 with six homers and 50 RBIs.

Johnson pitched for the Yankees for two years and was a disappointment to say the least. In his first season in pinstripes, Johnson was 17-8 with a 3.79 ERA, and last season he went 17-11 with an ERA of 5.00. He was a disaster in the playoffs, going 0-1 with a 6.92 ERA in three starts. After dominating in Arizona, both in the regular season and playoffs, New York had high expectations for Johnson coming to the Yankees and he did nothing but disappoint.

The Yankees were able to pull off a great trade by unloading Johnson, getting prospects in return, and having to pay only $2 million. The Yankees would have had to pay $16 million for a pitcher who was no longer producing.

Bringing Johnson back to the National League may help him, but don't expect the Johnson of old especially after the decrease in velocity as his fastball now only hits the low 90s.

The Diamondbacks will pay Johnson $14 million for the upcoming season, and I believe even with his decreased performance he will probably prove to be worth that amount because of the increase in attendance that he will bring. I do not however think he will be worth the $14 million plus the prospects that Arizona gave up, as well as the extension they signed him to.

Arizona: C

The D-Backs gave up too much for an aging pitcher who does too little.

Yankees: A+

They unloaded a huge disappointment, received prospects in return, and have to pay only $2 million of Johnson‚s salary. There is absolutely nothing wrong with their side of the deal, and this is coming from a die-hard Mets fan.

More from RealGM