TUCSON – The last time Yankees fans saw Javier Vazquez in pinstripes, he played a central role in the team’s ALCS Game 7 loss to the Red Sox, giving up two crushing home runs to Johnny Damon.
A little more than two months after those pitches were thrown, brass made sure they would be the last Vazquez would throw as a Yankee, shipping him to Arizona.
“I know it’s a business, and with the Yankees when they lose somebody’s got to pay,” Vazquez said yesterday at the Diamondbacks’ spring training home. “I guess I was the one who paid.”
Vazquez spent one year in The Bronx. He lived up to expectations in the first half, going 10-5 with a 3.56.
He collapsed, though, notching a 4-5 record with a 6.92 ERA after the break.
In the playoffs, he made one ineffective start against the Twins before being relegated to the bullpen. The first-pitch grand slam he gave up to Damon in the second inning of Game 7 gave the Sox a 6-0 lead. It also punched Vazquez’s ticket out of New York.
“I know I didn’t do my job in the second half,” Vazquez said. “I was disappointed [by the trade] because I really think it was a little unfair. A lot of people have bad second halves and they’re good pitchers.”
People speculated that Vazquez may have been injured, but the 28-year-old said he had no health problems and both the Yankees and Diamondbacks gave him MRI exams that turned up clean in the offseason. He blames his struggles on poor mechanics, which he has worked to correct this winter.
At home in Puerto Rico this winter, Vazquez heard his name reported in trade rumors. He said it did not upset him, but after a while he just wanted to know where he’d be playing in 2005.
“First, when the talk started I didn’t want to get traded because I really didn’t want it to end the way it ended in New York,” Vazquez said. “I wanted to go back there and prove to everybody that I was a better pitcher than what I did in the second half. After a while you start hearing your name more and more and then you want to just get traded already. After a few weeks of hearing my name I just wanted to be traded.”
Vazquez hoped to go to an East Coast team so his family could have a short trip home to Puerto Rico. But he reported to Arizona, and seemed happy yesterday joking with teammates about a PGA pool. Earlier this week, the team announced he’d be the opening-day starter. The righty is eager to show that the end of last season is behind him.
“I have to prove it to myself especially because you never want to have a season like I did last year,” he said. “I’m just here to prove I can still throw the baseball. I know I can.”
