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Big Unit deal could get done this weekend

Baseball

by briandtw on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 08:54pm

The Daily News reports that the Yankees and Diamondbacks are closing in on a deal that would send Randy Johnson to the D’Backs for pitching prospects. What stands in the way of getting the deal done? Three things:

1. The teams have to agree on the prospects. Right now, among the arms being discussed are three right-handed starters: Dustin Nippert (a 25 year-old who posted a 130/52 K/BB and 4.87 ERA in 140.1 innings at AAA), Micah Owings (a 24 year-old who posted 130/51 K/BB and 3.33 ERA in 162 innings at AA & AAA), and Ross Ohlendorf (a 24 year-old who posted a 125/29 K/BB and 3.25 ERA in 182.2 innings at AA & AAA). There is also some talk of one of Arizona’s young relievers.

2. Johnson has to waive his no-trade clause. In theory, this shouldn’t be a problem as one of the reported reasons the Yankees are accepting trade offers for Johnson is because he indicated to Brian Cashman that he wants to be closer to his family out West.

3. The D’Backs have to get a one-year contract extension out of Johnson. Once again, this should be doable in theory. Johnson has 280 career wins, and he would be hard-pressed to win 20 games in one season win the Yankees, let alone the Diamondbacks. So adding another year would benefit everyone.

Most of the mainstream media spin is that the Diamondbacks are doing this to draw at the gate. While acquiring Randy Johnson would obviously help in that area, I see this primarily as a move to improve their team enough to get to make a playoff run in the next couple seasons.

The National League West is weak, and getting weaker. The Giants got the geriatric band back together and replaced Jason Schmidt with Barry Zito. And neither the Dodgers, Rockies or Padres did much this offseason to add significantly to their talent base. In fact, an argument could be made that every team in the NL West got worse, except for the Diamondbacks if they pull this trade off.

A rotation of Brandon Webb, Randy Johnson, Doug Davis, Livan Hernandez, and one of their many young arms could be quite formidable.