Yanks on verge of completing Unit deal

NEW YORK -- Randy Johnson's two-year stay with the New York Yankees appears to be complete.

The Big Unit passed a physical conducted in Phoenix on Monday, and the Diamondbacks have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday to announce the trade.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has said he will not comment on the transaction until it is official, again declining comment on Monday at Yankee Stadium.

Johnson agreed to a $26 million contract extension through 2008 with Arizona on Sunday, moving the five-player trade between the two clubs closer to finalization.

In exchange for Johnson, who waived a no-trade clause in exchange for the extension, the Yankees are set to obtain reliever Luis Vizcaino, pitching prospects Ross Ohlendorf and Steven Jackson, plus Minor League shortstop Alberto Gonzalez.

The Yankees reportedly included $2 million in cash considerations to help the Diamondbacks offset the 43-year-old Johnson's $16 million salary for 2007.

The two clubs agreed to the structure of the trade on Thursday, with the Diamondbacks requesting a 72-hour window from the Commissioner's Office to hammer out an extension with Johnson's representatives, Barry Meister and Alan Nero. That window ran through 5 p.m. ET Sunday.

Johnson's stint in pinstripes spanned a total of 64 starts, with the Big Unit compiling a record of 34-19 with a 4.36 ERA over 430 2/3 regular-season innings.

But as a vaunted acquisition thought to be a big step toward securing the Yankees' 27th World Series championship, Johnson's New York tenure will ultimately be viewed through the prism of unfulfilled expectations.

With the Yankees stinging from their 2004 American League Championship Series loss to the Red Sox, Johnson was acquired from the D-backs on Jan. 11, 2005, for a three-player package including pitchers Javier Vazquez and Brad Halsey, catcher Dioner Navarro and cash considerations.

Always reputed as an intensely private and sometimes ornery personality, Johnson did little to sway preconceptions even before he officially became a Yankee.

Walking down a Manhattan street on the way to complete his physical examination, Johnson took offense to being followed by a television cameraman and a newspaper photographer, engaging in a brief incident in which he grabbed a camera lens.

Johnson later apologized for the altercation, but at a Yankee Stadium press conference the next afternoon, Johnson unknowingly summed up how his time in New York would eventually be reviewed.

"The bottom line is that I've been brought to the New York Yankees to help this team win a championship, and nothing less will be acceptable," Johnson said in January 2005.

Wearing uniform No. 41 instead of his customary No. 51, a gesture that allowed center fielder Bernie Williams to keep his digits, the five-time Cy Young Award winner got his Bronx tenure started on a strong note, limiting the Red Sox to one run on five hits on Opening Day in 2005.

But the sterling efforts expected of Johnson seemed to come less often than he or the Yankees had hoped. Johnson worked with catcher John Flaherty -- not starter Jorge Posada -- in a number of his 2005 starts, prompting whispers that Johnson and Posada were having difficulties working together.

Perhaps just as troubling, Johnson was quoted on a number of occasions that he was "happy just to keep his team in the game," an eyebrow-raising statement from a man who had arrived with ace expectations.

As it was later revealed, Johnson pitched much of 2005 and 2006 with back injuries, carrying unknown amounts of pain to the mound in both seasons before finally having surgery to repair a herniated disc after the '06 season.

Johnson's reliability was admirable, as he consistently took the ball start after start, a trait made even more noticeable as other members of the rotation fell by the wayside. But once the calendar turned to October, Johnson never was able to get past the hump of the Division Series.

Johnson recorded just nine outs in Game 3 of the 2005 ALDS against the Angels, allowing five runs and nine hits before leaving to a chorus of boos at Yankee Stadium. Johnson gave the Yankees 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in the Game 5 loss to the Angels two days later, perhaps earning some redemption, but that goodwill -- and any established during his second consecutive 17-win campaign -- seemed to go out the window one year later.

Assigned to pitch another Game 3 of the 2006 ALDS, this time against the Detroit Tigers, Johnson gave up eight hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings, putting the Yankees one loss from their eventual elimination.

It would prove to be the last on-field act in pinstripes for Johnson, who entered the offseason with 280 career victories. In a telephone conversation with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, Johnson expressed interest in pitching closer to his family's Paradise Valley, Ariz., home. Cashman had called the left-hander to express the organization's condolences over the passing of Johnson's brother.

Having already traded a veteran player -- Gary Sheffield, to Detroit -- this offseason, the Yankees saw Johnson's value and apparent willingness to return to the desert as one avenue by which to further strengthen their burgeoning farm system.

In the trade with Arizona, New York acquired a potential seventh-inning reliever in Vizcaino, who was a valuable presence in the D-backs' 2006 campaign, going 4-6 with a 3.58 ERA in 70 games. His presence may free manager Joe Torre to consider Scott Proctor as a potential fifth starter, providing a measure of competition for a group that includes Carl Pavano and top prospect Philip Hughes.

The Yankees also acquired a trio of players who saw time at Double-A Tennessee in the Southern League in 2006, including a vaunted prospect in Ohlendorf, a 24-year-old Princeton product who earned rave reviews for his sinker.

Ohlendorf had been considered a possiblity for Arizona's starting rotation in 2007 but is likely to begin the year in the Yankees' Minor League system. The right-hander made 27 starts at Tennessee last year, going 10-8 with a 3.29 ERA. In 177 2/3 innings, Ohlendorf struck out 125 and walked 29.

Jackson, one of Ohlendorf's Tennessee rotation mates, is a 24-year-old right-hander who went 8-11 with a 2.65 ERA in 24 starts, walking 45 and striking out 125. Jackson struggled while representing the D-backs in the Arizona Fall League, going 0-2 with a 7.11 ERA in six starts for the Scottsdale Scorpions.

Gonzalez, 23, was Tennessee's starting shortstop in 2006 and is considered to be a strong defensive player. He held his own against Southern League pitching, batting .290 with six home runs and 50 RBIs in 129 games.