TAMPA, Fla. -- Jaret Wright will have to wait two weeks before he takes the mound as a member of the Yankees, as Joe Torre announced his starting rotation for the regular season.

"It took a long time, but I wasn't expecting any sympathy from the other managers in baseball," said Torre of setting up his starters. "We're pretty talented in the starting rotation."

Having already announced Randy Johnson as the Opening Day starter, Torre tabbed Carl Pavano and Mike Mussina to start the final two games of the opening series against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

Kevin Brown will then take the ball for the first game of the three-game set against the Orioles, followed by Johnson and Pavano.

That leaves Mussina to start the first game of the series at Fenway Park on April 11, the Red Sox home opener in which they will hoist their World Series flag and receive their championship rings.

"He's experienced in our league, and in pitching in that ballpark," Torre said. "It's a different ballpark to pitch in, and Moose has had some success there. Randy Johnson came in here as a newcomer and became the Opening Day pitcher, and Moose certainly deserves that responsibility [of the Fenway opener]."

Because of the three off days during the first 10 days of the season, Torre and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre opted to skip Wright the first time through, preventing any of the other pitchers from getting any more than one extra day of rest.

"It's not easy when you have five quality people like we have, but we decided to line them up that way because we felt Jaret could handle that, physically," Torre said. "He was fine with that. There aren't any reasons, you just have to choose somebody."

Wright's first start will come in the series opener in Baltimore on April 15, two weeks after his final Spring Training outing.

"Being a fifth starter in April is not an ideal situation, but it's a job. Somebody has to be the fifth starter," Wright said. "Coming out of camp last year, I was the fifth starter with Atlanta, so I kind of know what to expect and what I have to do. Soon enough, I'll be in the rotation. It's two weeks, but I think it will go pretty quick."

"Hopefully he's fine with it. We sense he is. He seems very calm, very understanding," Torre said. "By the time it's all said and done, we're going to have five guys that we're going to need on a regular basis. We don't anticipate skipping them, purposely, at any time in the future."

It had been widely assumed that Brown, who struggled in the second half of 2004, would be the odd man out, but Torre said that he and Stottlemyre liked what they have seen from the 40-year-old both health-wise and stuff-wise this spring.

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"Brownie's pitching this spring and his feel for the game out there, in our opinion, is certainly encouraging for us," Torre said. "We didn't want to lose that. We liked where he is this spring and we wanted to keep him going."

"It's not about me as an individual, it's what you can do for the team. I wasn't worried about it one way or the other," Brown said. "I'm moving around better than I ever did last year. Hopefully that will translate into a better performance."

With six of their first nine games of the season coming against the Red Sox, the Yankees will send Johnson and Mussina out for four of them, with Pavano and Brown starting the other two. Mussina had no problem with the Fenway-opener assignment, though he knows that there will be plenty of pomp and circumstance before the game.

"He's asked me to pitch the first game of the World Series, the first game of the ALCS, the first game of the postseason two years in a row," Mussina said. "I've pitched down 0-2, so this fits in with all of those things."

Wright went through a similar situation last season, as he was skipped a couple of times in the Braves' rotation. He plans to throw several side sessions to stay sharp, and Torre said that the right-hander could get into a game out of the bullpen should the right situation present itself.

"I think it's a unique situation with the guys we have," Wright said. "There could be worse things that happen. You'd like to be in a game, but that's not the decision. Stuff I really can't control, I just try to control what happens after that. I'll try and stay game-ready."

"It's a nice, tough decision. It's just a way to line people up, and you hope that all the guys buy into how tough it was and that they respect each other enough to know this isn't a contest of the pecking order," Torre said. "Mel likes to stay away from putting numbers on these guys, that everybody is No. 1 on the day they pitch. We just didn't think it was smart to use five guys."