Vazquez joins Yankees as Cabrera sent to Braves

Puerto Rican right-handed pitcher Javier Vazquez joined the New York Yankees for the second time on Tuesday as the World Series champions sent outfielder Melky Cabrera to the Atlanta Braves in return.

The move boosted the Yankees' payroll, last year's biggest in Major League Baseball at 201 million dollars, back above 200 million with only 16 players signed.

Vazquez, 33, was traded for the fifth time in six years, included being sent away by the Yankees to Arizona in 2004 as part of a deal that brought Randy Johnson to New York.

Vazquez went 14-10 for the Yankees in 2004, but went 4-5 over the second half of the season and surrendered a grand slam and two-run homer to Boston's Johnny Damon in the deciding game of the American League championship series.

Cabrera, 25, had been a centerfield starter for New York most of the past three seasons, hitting .274 with 13 home runs and driving in 68 runs to help the Yankees win their first World Series crown since 2000.

Vazquez went 15-10 last season with a 2.87 earned-run average and 238 strikeouts this year for the Braves. His career record is 142-139 over 12 seasons.

Next year will be the final season of Vazquez's contract, in which he will be paid 11.5 million dollars.

With pitchers C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte also set for next season, the Yankees will have a formidable starting rotation that will make 64 million dollars - more than four major league club payrolls in 2009.

As part of the deal, the Yankees obtained southpaw pitcher Boone Logan while Atlanta received pitchers Mike Dunn and Arodys Vizcaino plus 500,000 dollars.