Brian Cashman Makes Another Solid Move And Upgrades the Yankees Starting Rotation With J.A. Happ

Cashman strikes again and gets a guy he and the rest of the organization oddly covet. J.A. Happ is not someone that moves the needle by any means and I’m not here to try and convince you this is the big move we’ve been waiting for. What it is, is a move that fortifies the back end of this rotation. Behind Severino, Tanaka, and CC, Happ slides in ahead of Sonny Gray and bumps him to the five spot. What this trade does is prevent Luis Cessa or Domingo German from starting anymore games and gives us a veteran lefty that has experience, especially pitching against the Red Sox.

Happ has a career 2.91 ERA in Fenway in 8 starts and a career 2.98 ERA against the Red Sox overall in 18 starts. Sure he gave up a grand slam to Mookie Betts a few weeks ago which Carrabis will certainly not let you forget, but keep in mind the Jays committed two errors in that inning including a dropped foul out during Betts’ at bat. He didn’t give up an earned run in the start. Sure he gave up the bomb which many will talk about, but for the most part (aside from Steve Pearce) he holds the Sox lineup in check.

Now the negative side of this is that Happ is 35 and has a 6.03 ERA over his last six starts. People will say Happ is not the front of the line starting pitcher this team needed to add. They’re not wrong. Like I said Happ is a 3 or 4 starter at this point in this career. But it’s also quite possible that ace starting pitcher we dream of just isn’t out there to be had. I do, however, believe Cashman will have his ear pinned to the trade winds this weekend as certain teams decide if they’re going to be sellers or stay the course.

As for what the Yankees gave up, Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney are two nice players who just didn’t have a fit on this team. Drury is going to be a good baseball player in the big leagues, but he was blocked by Torres and Andujar on the big league club. Drury is valuable and is under control for three years, so the Jays made good with this deal for sure. McKinney is a AAA outfielder who needed a series of crazy injuries to the outfield in order to crack the roster earlier in the season. The fact is he wasn’t going to sniff playing time and was therefore expendable. I fully expect him to terrorize the Yanks in the future with his lefty power bat. The Jays got a nice haul in return for a rental starting pitcher, but to the Yankees this cost nothing in reality.

Cashman has upgraded two areas of the team without giving up a real top prospect (Tate doesn’t count because they were going to lose him anyways) so we have to be happy about that. The Dark Lord works in mysterious ways. I have a feeling we’re still quite a bit aways away from being done with the deadline.

#InCashmanWeTrust

We talked about this potential, likely trade on today’s episode of The Short Porch. We also talked about trading for Britton along with Gary and Boone’s fuck-ups. This was a very good episode to get caught up on everything that’s been going on.