Dodgers Call Off Three-Team Deal

Shawn Green doesn’t have to house-hunt in Scottsdale, Ariz. No need for Brad Penny to descend the mountain he’s climbing to take a physical. Kazuhisa Ishii can continue vacationing in Hawaii, and Yhency Brazoban can cancel the U-Haul.

But slugging free-agent outfielder J.D. Drew can book a flight to Los Angeles anyway.

The Dodgers, resisting pressure from the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks, pulled out of a three-team trade that had been discussed for days and was erroneously reported as being completed by media outlets covering the Yankees.

The plug was pulled on the blockbuster 10-player deal because Javier Vazquez, the high-priced Yankee pitcher who would have come to the Dodgers, refused to take a physical, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.

However, a source close to Vazquez said he was willing to be examined but had expressed to the Dodgers that he wanted to remain on the East Coast. Vazquez has three years and $35 million remaining on his contract and can demand a trade after next season.

Drew, who hit 31 home runs for the Atlanta Braves last season, has no such qualms. He has agreed to terms on what is believed to be a five-year, $55-million deal with the Dodgers, according to sources, and is expected to play right field. Green, in the last year of a contract that pays him $16 million, could play first base as he did much of last season, or could still be traded.

But the big deal became a big bust when Vazquez balked. General Manager Paul DePodesta considered taking him anyway and then trading him, but couldn’t find a suitable match.

“There were factors that forced us to make the decision,” DePodesta said. “Of the three teams, we put an end to it.”

Owner Frank McCourt informed Yankee and Diamondback brass Tuesday afternoon that five-time Cy Young Award winner Randy Johnson would have to find his way from Phoenix to New York without the help of the Dodgers.

Although Vazquez has had no history of arm problems, his health was questioned late last season when he was 1-4 in his last nine starts with an earned-run average of 7.00 and was hit hard in three playoff appearances. Until the skid, he was 13-6.

Vazquez, 28, is vacationing with his family in the Virgin Islands and was unavailable for comment.

The Yankees had been so convinced the trade would be finalized they took the unusual step of seeking permission from the commissioner’s office for Johnson to take a physical before the trade was approved. He planned to fly to New York, take a physical today, then begin a vacation.

DePodesta had cautioned for days that the trade was not as close as several media outlets portrayed it. He said it didn’t make sense “as a stand-alone” and that he needed to have other moves in place that would be triggered by the deal. He never intimated that Vazquez would be reluctant to become a Dodger.

Even Tuesday, DePodesta would not comment on health questions regarding any player in the proposed deal other than to say the biceps injury suffered by Penny in August would not have held it up.

“I don’t want to get into details of it,” DePodesta said. “It’s not fair to everybody involved. Nobody took a physical. It never got to that point. It wasn’t holding this up.”

The key acquisition for the Dodgers would have been minor league catcher Dioner Navarro, who Baseball America rated as the top Yankee prospect. The Dodgers say he could break into the major leagues at some point next season and become a starter by 2006.

“Navarro was the jewel of the trade, a guy who could have been our catcher for five or six years,” a Dodger source said.

Navarro and third baseman Eric Duncan, the other highly regarded Yankee prospect, were not enough for the Dodgers to make a deal that included an obstinate Vazquez.

A fourth player who would have come to the Dodgers was Arizona reliever Mike Koplove.

“I’ve been saying all along we wouldn’t do the deal unless it makes sense for the 2005 club,” DePodesta said.

The Dodgers planned to sign Drew to fill the void left by Green, who hit 28 home runs last season. Negotiations were so far along the team decided to sign him even though the trade fell through. He is expected to have a physical Thursday.

DePodesta also wants to add to the pitching staff, even after retaining Brazoban, an effective reliever as a rookie, and starters Penny and Ishii.

“Our needs really haven’t changed,” he said.

Despite all the time and effort put into the trade that never happened, DePodesta said he regretted nothing except the uncertainty it caused the players.

“I think it’s terrible that the players were reading their names in the papers,” he said. “In reality it was a long way from being done. I’m looking forward to making a call to some of the guys and telling them to settle down and not be concerned with being traded.”

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Looking Forward

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The 2005 Dodger lineup if the season started today with 2004 batting averages:

*--* 1B Hee-Seop Choi 251 2B Jeff Kent 289 SS Cesar Izturis 288 3B Jose Valentin 216 C David Ross 170 LF Jayson Werth 262 CF Milton Bradley 267 RF Shawn Green 266

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*--* STARTING ROTATION Brad Penny Edwin Jackson Jeff Weaver Wilson Alvarez or Kazuhisa Ishii Elmer Dessens

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