Dodgers Trade Javier to Phillies : Baseball: He goes down hall, changes uniforms, then leads off against his former mates.

After spending two seasons hoping for a trade, Stan Javier got his wish Thursday when the Dodgers traded him to the visiting Philadelphia Phillies for minor league pitcher Steve Searcy and a player to be named.

Javier walked into the Dodger clubhouse as the team’s sixth outfielder and soon after was down the hall being fitted for a Phillie uniform. He was penciled into the lineup as their starting center fielder and leadoff hitter.

“I thought I had seen everything,” Javier said.

“That’s amazing,” former teammate Eric Davis said. “I don’t know whether to pull for him or smack him upside the head.”

The Dodgers had been attempting to trade Javier for several days.

They needed his roster spot for the three minor league pitchers who will be used during the doubleheaders, and they didn’t need his $715,000 salary sitting on the bench.

He had made only five starts this season and was batting .190. In parts of three seasons with the Dodgers, he went from a starting center fielder in mid-1990 to Brett Butler’s backup.

In 281 games for the Dodgers, Javier batted .256 with five home runs and 40 runs batted in.

His spot on the roster will be taken temporarily by rookie Pedro Astacio, who will start the second game of the doubleheader against the Phillies tonight.

Next week, Astacio’s spot will be taken by Kip Gross, then Pedro Martinez, as the Dodgers play three consecutive doubleheaders against the Montreal Expos.

The deal was cemented when the Phillies’ Lenny Dykstra was put on the 15-day disabled because of a strained right hamstring. Javier could remain in the starting lineup in left or right field after Dykstra returns.

“I’m very glad to be going where I will have a chance to play,” Javier said. “I don’t know how much chance, but after starting just five games with the Dodgers. . . . I may get five starts in the next week here.”

Searcy, 28, a left-hander who had been pursued by Dodger Vice President Fred Claire for several years, had a 6.10 earned-run average as a reliever for the Phillies this year before being sent to triple-A Scranton.

The Dodgers will use him as a starter at triple-A Albuquerque.