Very quietly the Yankees kept checking in with the Blue Jays on Roy Halladay and with even greater stealth made a late push on Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee.
The Yankees had been worried enough about the postseason workload endured by CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte that pitching coach Dave Eiland already had ordered them to push the start of their offseason throwing programs back a few weeks with more precautions due in spring training.
But the best protection to potential breakdowns physically and/or in performance, the Yankees knew, was to obtain another high-end starter. However, the Yanks came to believe that unless they made an outrageous offer, Toronto would just as soon keep Halladay out of the AL East and the Phillies preferred to keep Lee off the team that just beat them in the World Series.
So Halladay went to the Phillies and Lee went far away to Seattle, and the Yankees’ ideal candidates went away, too. The Yanks knew Halladay and Lee could pitch atop an AL rotation under pressure. They cannot be sure about that with Javier Vazquez. But the Yankees turned to Vazquez anyway as the best remaining option.
The Yanks considered the Reds’ Aaron Harang and the Cubs’ Victor Zambrano, but high salaries and health concerns stopped those pursuits. The best on their free-agent list — Joel Pineiro, Jarrod Washburn and Jon Garland — did not excite the Yankees.
So they completed a five-player trade yesterday with Atlanta for Vazquez, rightfully seeing a risk worth taking because his stuff can win in the AL East. Heck, his stuff is arguably better than that of John Lackey, who Boston just signed to a five-year contract.
With Lackey, though, there are no questions about fortitude. Lackey won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series as a rookie. Vazquez’s first go-around as a Yankee in 2004, ended with him out of the playoff rotation and serving up a memorable grand slam in ALCS Game 7 to Boston’s Johnny Damon.
The Yanks want to believe this is a more seasoned version than the twentysomething they plucked out of Montreal after the 2003 season. Back then the Yanks envisioned a young ace. Now they want him as a No. 4 starter.
However, a No. 4 starter for the Yanks equates to an ace just about anywhere else — eventually you better win in Fenway and in October. And when last in the AL, Vazquez was being criticized by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen for lacking grit.
Now Guillen also disliked Nick Swisher and that worked out just fine for the Yanks. Plus Vazquez shined in the first half of 2004 as a Yankee, making the All-Star team before his shoulder became an issue.
In the end, though, the Yanks turned to Vazquez for two major reasons:
1. They swear they have an under-$200 million budget. So they could add a big starter or an impact left fielder, not both. And with the concerns about the rotation, this was easy, made easier by the belief that left fielders could be found during the year more readily than good starters. And this starter is just the kind of workhorse the Yanks craved. Vazquez has pitched the second most innings in the majors since 2000.
Brian Cashman says now there will be no big move for a left fielder. So scratch off any last-second shopping for Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. And discard Johnny Damon, too, unless his price tag falls to a point that would feel just too humiliating to accept from the Yanks. If his surgically repaired elbow is healthy, Xavier Nady could return on a low-base, high-incentive deal.
2, Having Vazquez in the No. 4 slot will mean a No. 5 battle between Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. That is fine with the Yanks, who did not want both neophytes in the rotation, but did want one setting up Mariano Rivera. The loser becomes Rivera’s caddy and potential heir, and there has been more organizational sentiment recently that Joba’s rightful place is in the pen.
joel.sherman@nypost.com