January 3rd Flashback: Johnson leaves, Green arrives

Randy Johnson was traded to the Yankees on January 3rd, 2005. Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

January 3rd, 2005 was a busy day for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two-time All Star Shawn Green was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the D’backs in exchange for Danny Muegge, William Juarez, Dioner Navarro and Beltran Perez. This deal was done to complete the bigger trade that was announced later that day.  Star pitcher Randy Johnson was traded to the New York Yankees for Navarro, Javier Vazquez, Brad Halsey and $9 million dollars.

While Green had declined somewhat from his three prior forty home run seasons, he was still a productive every day player. However, he would last less than two seasons in Arizona. The outfielder enjoyed a nice 2005 season with 22 home runs and 73 RBI’s with a slash line of .286/.355/.477. In 2006, he played in a total of 115 games for the D’backs with 11 homers and 51 RBI’s before being dealt to the New York Mets on August 26th for Minor League pitcher Evan MacLane. Green would play all of 2007 in New York before retiring at the age of 34 with 328 HR’s and 1,070 RBI’s and a line of .283/.355/.494.

With the D’backs coming off a 111 loss season in 2004, the Big Unit desired a trade to a contending team. He got his wish going to the Yankees but his time in the Bronx got off to a rough start when he tried to block a reporter’s camera from taking any pictures. Although he won 34 games in his two seasons with the Yanks, his ERA was an uncharacteristic 4.37 and he was never fully embraced by Pinstriped fans. On January 9th, 2007, Johnson was traded back to the D’backs for Alberto Gonzalez, Steven Jackson, Ross Ohlendorf and Luis Vizcaino. He pitched another two seasons for the Snakes before winning his 300th game on June 4, 2009 with the San Francisco Giants.

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