Following a disappointing performance in Game 7 of the 2004 American League Championship Series where Vazquez pitched two innings of relief allowing three runs, two hits (both home runs to Johnny Damon), and five walks, the Yankees sent Vázquez, Brad Halsey, and Dioner Navarro, to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Randy Johnson on January 11, 2005. Johnson, then a 10 time all-star, had won the National League Cy Young Award each year from 1999 to 2002 and had finished in second place in Cy Young voting that year (striking out a league high 290 batters with only 44 walks in 245 innings.)