The New York Yankees have hired Starting Pitcher J.A. Happ. The left-hander comes in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays, who get two players for it.
“We were obviously in contact with some teams regarding the available starters on the market,” said Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman on Thursday. “This is an area that we have been trying to improve for a while and we saw Happ as one of the few enviable candidates. Blue-Jays-GM Ross Atkins and I just stayed in touch. And we finally made the decision to make the deal,” Cashman continued.
Happ is in this season 10-6 with a 4.18 ERA over 20 starts this season, which led to a 101 ERA+. Especially interesting is his record against Boston Red Sox, New York’s arch-rival: He has a 0.84 ERA in two starts against them this season and is 7-4 (2.98 ERA) in 19 matches (18 starts) against Boston.
“I think that certainly helped,” said Yankee manager Aaron Boone about Happ’s résumé against the Red Sox.
Happ will take the fifth place in the Yankee pitching rotation, which was more or less successfully filled by a few young pitchers. Most recently Luis Cessa, previously Domingo German, started in this spot.
The Blue Jays get two players for Happ: the versatile Infielder Brandon Drury and Outfield prospect Billy McKinney. Drury came via Trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks before the season and started the season as a third base starter before migraine attacks had put him out of action for a long time. In his absence, rookie Miguel Andujar finally outstripped him. McKinney, on the other hand, was number 20 on the Yankee prospect list according to the MLB pipeline.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.