[EmpireWF]

Local radio station WFAN reports the Yankees and Diamondbacks have agreed on a trade involving Johnson. The Yankees will send the Big Unit to Arizona for RP Luis Vizcaino and minor leaguers RHP Steven Jackson, RHP Ross Ohlendorf and OF Alberto Gonzalez.

The DBacks will have a 72-hour window to negotiate a new deal with Johnson (or extension/something) beginning tomorrow.

I'm not sure whether the Yanks sent any money along.

Great deal for the Yanks who get a decent reliever and two young power arms. They may not amount to much, but if nothing else, they can provide some help in the middle of the season. Gonzalez seems like a throw in.

[Nuke]

What a smart, great deal for the Yankees. Getting some new young arms that they could evaluate and maybe toss into their rotation or bullpen. I applaud them although i'm a Mets fan. It also is better for Johnson cuz he'll get 300 wins a lot easier in the National League. Things just didn't work out for the Big Unit as a Yankee unfortunately.

[MJHMarc]

Things just don't work out for most players as Yankees.

I guess you must have the Yankee blood to succeed.

[MVB]

Kevin Brown, Jose Contreras, Tony Womack, Javier Vazquez, Tanyon Sturze, and now Randy Johnson....

You really need to be special to survive in the Bronx.

Yeah, this is a great deal by the Yankees- they get rid of an aging, inconsistent, back-end-of-the-rotation pitcher for a decent reliever and a couple of minor leaguers. It is a shame that Johnson didn't have success in New York. I for one, was thrilled when he came to the Bronx, but was very disappointed with the two years he had on the team.

Just a couple notes here:

- The Yankees will pay $2 million dollars worth of the Unit's 2007 contract with the D'Backs

- Alberto Gonzalez, the shortstop/ outfielder who came over in the trade, was one of the "Southern League's" best players last year. He's only 23, bats very well ( .290 over the entire season, .333 over the final two months, and is above average defensively.

- Ross Ohlendorf was a fourth round draft pick out of Princeton. He had a solid year in '06.

- Steve Jackson (24) had the second-best ERA in the Southern League at 2.65 and held opponents to a .239 batting average.

- Luis Vizcaino pitched 65 innings out of the pen last year, striking out 72 (only 29 walks) and posting a 3.58 ERA. Having Vizcaino on the team will allow the Yankees to experiment with Proctor, possibly putting him in the starting rotation (please no!).

[ThePundit]

Wallace Matthews of Newsday had this to say about Randy Johnson:

The worst trade in Yankees history, one every bit as bad as the Babe Ruth deal was good, is finally over. After two years, the Yankees have stuffed Randy Johnson into a crate, marked it FRAGILE and shipped it back where it came from, return postage guaranteed........

Rarely have I seen a professional athlete more disliked by his teammates than Johnson was by the Yankees, a team he played for but was never really a part of.

You can't take a surly, withdrawn misfit who happens to have been blessed with the skill to throw baseballs past bats and expect him to survive in an environment populated by vibrant human beings.

He never seemed to understand that for his $16 million a year, a little more was expected of him than occasionally good, often bad and mostly mediocre pitching every five days. Nobody was asking him to be David Cone in the clubhouse, but a little common courtesy would have been nice.

Apparently, neither courtesy nor civility was in Randy Johnson's makeup, although we all should have known that the minute the former SI "Sportsman of the Year" bailed on his Arizona teammates as soon as things started going bad.

Hardly knew ye, didn't want to - Newsday.com

[EmpireWF]

MVB, I wouldn't expect much offense out of Alberto Gonzalez if he ever gets to the bigs. He is known for his stellar glove and I've even read where he could potentially be a player at any of the IF positions, he's so good defensively.

Not a bad player to have on the 40-man in case you need some help in that department.