LosAngeles.Dodgers.MLB.com

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

Even with ace Kevin Brown, left, departing, Jeff Weaver joins a crowded rotation. (Dodgers/AP)

Kevin Brown speaks to reporters
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NEW ORLEANS -- The trade of former ace Kevin Brown was finally declared official Saturday night, bringing the Dodgers three pitchers, $2.4 million cash and financial flexibility that management promises to turn into offensive production.

Brown goes to the New York Yankees for Jeff Weaver, minor leaguers Yhency Brazoban and Brandon Weeden and the money to offset part of the $15.5 million owed to Weaver over the next two years. The Dodgers made the deal to shed the $30 million owed to Brown over the next two years.

The trade was agreed upon Thursday and delayed by haggling over a laundry list of perks that were included in the seven-year, $105 million contract the Dodgers gave to Brown five years ago, when then-general manager Kevin Malone was promising a world's title. The Yankees initially agreed to give the Dodgers $3 million to offset Weaver's salary, but Los Angeles agreed to pick up the cost of a private jet service to fly Brown's family to New York from Georgia 12 times per year -- a modification of a perk that was in the right-hander's original contract -- reducing the figure by $600,000.

But the Dodgers never reached the postseason with Brown, who spent half of his stint battling elbow and back injuries that required operations. He rebounded in 2003 to go 14-9 with a 2.39 ERA, second-best in the league.

"When I went to L.A., it was with the mindset that we'd be the Yankees of the West Coast," said Brown. "That's what I envisioned when I went out there, that we'd be in the playoffs year after year. That didn't happen."

But he will be 39 next year and the Dodgers are relieved to have moved his contract off their books. He was 58-32 with a 2.83 ERA with the Dodgers.