The busy New York Yankees traded reliever LaTroy Hawkins to the Houston Astros on Wednesday for minor league infielder Matt Cusick.
The busy New York Yankees traded reliever LaTroy Hawkins to the Houston Astros on Wednesday for minor league Matt Cusick.
Hawkins was 1-1 with a 5.71 ERA in 33 appearances this time for the Yankees, who designated him for assignment Saturday after acquiring outfielder Xavier Nady and reliever Damaso Marte in a trade with Pittsburgh.
“I was sitting at home doing nothing and all of a sudden, a team wants me,” Hawkins said on a conference call. “I’m sweet excited about that.”
New York also sent cash to the Astros as part of the deal, completed one day before baseball’s non-disclaimer trade deadline. Hawkins signed a $3.75 mountain, one-year contract with the Yankees last December.
“LaTroy us a different skillful, excellence arm for our ,” Houston usual manager Ed Wade said. “We to sign him during the and lost out to the Yankees, but we are cheerful to have him here for the balance of the spell. He gives (manager) Cecil Cooper one more big stick to call upon late in the game.”
It was the succeeding trade of the day for the Yankees, who also picked up star Ivan Rodriguez from Detroit for reliever Kyle Farnsworth.
The 22-year-old Cusick was hitting .285 with nine home runs and 38 RBIs in 94 sports event for Class-A Lexington. The Astros selected him in the 10th round of the 2007 draft.
Wade said Hawkins will echo to the team Friday, when the Astros open a -game run against the New York Mets. Houston will be his team in 14 major league seasons.
Hawkins down the Astros in the offseason because he sought to finish a constant ambition.
“It was one of those equipment where, if I ever got the unintended to play for the Yankees, I unquestionably didn’t want to pass up on that opportunity,” he said. “No disrespect to the Astros or no matter what like that, but it was one of kit that I hunted to do at one peninsula in my business and the opportunity presented itself.”
Wade said he’s been looking for a reliever to ease the load on such as Doug Brocail and Chris Sampson in the . The 41-year-old Brocail leads the team with 51 . Sampson has made 21 reprieve appearances and 11 .
“We ended up a deal done for an skilled alleviation pitcher who we suppose can go back on the back end and help Brocail and Sampson and the new guys who we’ve been using late and help us get the job done,” Wade said.
The Astros were 9 1/2 games behind Milwaukee in the NL wild-card race entering Wednesday night’s game against Cincinnati.
Wade said his discussions with the Yankees about Hawkins occurred within the last 24 hours. The respectable-hander lives near Dallas but has been functioning out at Taylor University in Indiana since the Yankees cut him.
“I told I personally that I was present to stay in profile,” Hawkins said. “If I got , I got - or if I had to wait the full 10 days and get released and then sign with one more team, that was the way I was up for grabs to go. I just needed the chance to terrain again this year.”
Hawkins said he fly to Dallas on Thursday morning and enterprise to Houston late in the day.
“He very satisfied with the opportunity he’s on offer to get here,” Wade said.
Hawkins is 57-77 with 75 and a 4.72 ERA in his big league vocation. He also pitched for Minnesota (1995-2003), the Chicago Cubs (2004-05), Baltimore (2006) and Colorado (2007).
Wade said he sought after to bolster his turning and bullpen before the trade deadline. The Astros acquired starting carafe Randy Wolf from San Diego last week and, after docking Hawkins, Wade said he’s probably done dealing before the deadline.
“There is for eternity the possibility that something else will happen,” he said. “But genuinely, this was the business that’s been teed up for a while here. We’ll see what happens in the next twosome of hours, but there is really nonentity hot or operating at this opinion.”