There has been no shortage of offseason trade speculation centering on Yankees left-hander J.A. Happ, especially in the wake of the team’s blockbuster Gerrit Cole signing. If we’re to believe general manager Brian Cashman, though, Happ isn’t going anywhere. Cashman told Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network (video link) that Happ will open 2020 as the Yankees’ fifth starter behind Cole, Luis Severino, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka.
Whether you want to take Cashman’s statement at face value is up to you, but it does appear Happ would be a challenge to trade. The normally solid Happ is coming off a subpar season, set to enter his age-37 campaign, owed a significant salary, and has an unappealing vesting option baked into his contract.
Happ, who pitched to a 4.91 ERA/5.22 FIP with 7.81 K/9 (down from 9.78 the prior year) in 2019, will earn $17MM this season. Worsening matters, he’ll make another $17MM in 2021 if he racks up 165 innings or 27 starts this year – two figures he has typically approached or surpassed over the past several campaigns.
Getting Happ’s money (or at least some of it) off the books would help the Yankees from a luxury-tax standpoint, as they’re currently projected for a whopping $261MM-plus total. That said, there’s a case it would benefit them to keep Happ around and hope for a bounce-back showing.
Happ, despite an overall disappointing year, did end last season on a high note with a strong September. He’s also the most logical candidate to eat innings from the back of a Yankees rotation that will go awhile without righty Domingo German, whom MLB handed a suspension for domestic violence that will cost him the first 63 games of 2020. Meanwhile, southpaw Jordan Montgomery – the Yankees’ next most experienced starter – barely pitched over the previous two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Beyond German and Montgomery, New York’s looking at mostly unproven 40-man options, albeit some intriguing ones including Deivi Garcia, Jonathan Loaisiga, Albert Abreu and Mike King, as well as minor league signing Nick Tropeano. One or more of them could factor into the Yankees’ starting staff during the season, but for now, it appears they’ll take a backseat to Happ.
Man on payroll to play for team paying him. Got it.
The kiss of death!
He will be traded tomorrow.
Lol
He’s not going anywhere because nobody wants a back end starter at that price and at that contract option. Besides , payroll issues aside, he should be ok as a fifth starter.
He’s not a 5th starter on every team. On many teams he’s a mid rotation option and just a year and half ago he was a solid 2.
Really hard to judge a lot of pitchers that struggled last year because we have no idea what’s going to happen with the juiced ball or what effect it really had on pitchers
@ShieldF123
I’m starting to think that excuse is being overused. Happ’s HR/9 increased from 1.4 HR/Per 9. to 1.9. I think his drop in K/9 from 9.8 to 7.8 and his H/9 IP went from 7.6 to 8.9. Maybe we can explain away the H/9 may have increased due to a juiced ball but I’m not sure we can blame his inability to miss bats on a “juiced ball”. Good pitchers didn’t seem effected as the best pitchers in the game still kept their numbers in check.
fivethirtyeight.com/features/juiced-baseballs/
The research, performed by the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and Kent State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, reveals changes in the density and chemical composition of the baseball’s core — and provides our first glimpse inside the newer baseballs.
beyondtheboxscore.com/2019/5/2/18524391/baseball-j…
Clearly, the question is not whether the ball is juiced. It is.
We’re unlikely to get an admission from commissioner Rob Manfred or anyone official at MLB. That’s okay, we don’t really need one. The evidence speaks for itself. However, this begets many more questions.
good I hope he does, yes $17 million is more than he’s probably worth but he’ll still be a solid #4 caliber starter and I would rather see him in the rotation than traded elsewhere so Hal can buy a new yacht
lol, hal has 17 yachts already.
Well, his father was a ship builder. 🙂
on each yacht is a commercially unavailable substance that works wonders.
Happ can be very good. Look for a bounce back this summer.
I sure hope so. His stuff is certainly better than last years showing.
Silly me. I thought it was the manager who made decisions related to who plays? Boone is just a puppet
GM’s make the decisions in the winter, as we know you need at least 8 starters for the season!
When Boone gets off his butt and trades for a fifth starter, he can make the decision all by himself. Otherwise, he gets to play what Cashman gives him. ***Yes, that first part was sarcastic.
Yes, silly you.
His splits are interesting. His ERA Home and Road splits don’t tell the whole story. If you look at his splits in more detail it could be argued he could be a #4 for another team, and for one in maybe a pitcher friendly park/division, maybe even NL. $17 mil for his overall ability is a bit much but there’s value in this guy.
I still think Happ will bounce back this year, pitching is outlier. Look what Sonny Gray did last year and what Happ did when 2 years ago when he came to the Yanks, I think he won 8 straight games.
I would rather have Happ as a 5th starter. He can handle NY media, pressure, and the big moment. Montgomery, German, and Warren are also there. We are in great shape. Must be healthy this year.
Happ as a fly ball pitcher was victimized by the “juiced balls” last year. If the baseballs this year have a bit more of the old drag he could be better than decent again.
I hope they do. The home runs in baseball overall were ridiculous last year.
I won’t be too upset to see Happ open as the 5th starter. The veteran presence there will be good. However I was hoping Montgomery would get the 5th spot
Translation: No teams would bail us out of a 17M aging pitcher.
Just don’t pitch Happ so much.
Easy! He will probably suck anyway.
And what genius gave a 36 year old pitcher this deal after a couple of months of goodness?
Can this genius spell “small sample size?”
His performance over the previous 1300 innings was consistently better than what he did in 2019. You appear confused about this ““small sample size” concept.
the point is clear. who signs a declining 36 year old to a 3 year deal at an above avg 17 mil per???
his 1300 previous innings is exactly why they should have avoided him.
“I’ve gotten so much smarter now that I’ve learned to harness the power of 20/20 hindsight”
Given a rather thin pitching market when they signed Happ, after facing him up to 6 times per year, taking the ball 32 times a year, and pitching pretty effectively against the AL East….its easy to see why the Yankees signed him…..hindsight is terrific isn’t it fitsig…whatever!
hindsight is the whine to those who were incorrect when they applauded this signing. Like you rocky.
however, to a good number of us who saw the happless signing as desperation its not hindsight just an understanding of the game.
Ah heck, the Yankees are the one team that can afford it!
No cost overruns (a billion dollars!) like other teams (Cubs!) on mismanaged real estate/stadium deals (what ADA regulations?)
LOL!
Next man up (pitchers)…..
Their rotation should be better with him in it than Montgomery. Plus, Germán won’t be available at the beginning of the season.
This only sucks because I wanted to see Monty build his innings back up and continue to develop especially with German as a candidate to fill the #5 role after his suspension. But hey, Yanks can afford it and with the way the injury bug has struck it’s better to have 8 starters than 5.
Well since Pax and Tanaka are gone next year they’ll have some spots to fill. Monty and German will get their chances.
Paxton is definitely gone but I expect Masa to return.
ugh
but i guess we have to lose some games, so it might as well be on happless’ watch.
Wonder if this is a Bubba Crosby moment?
7-0 with 2.69 ERA in 2018 for Yankees… 0-1 with 22.50 ERA in 2018 playoffs vs a cheating Boston team who knew what pitches were coming … If they don’t cheat and he wins that game and they go on to win the 2018 world series they’re making a yankeeography of him – not wondering if they are going to trade him for a bucket of balls
7-0 with 2.69 ERA in 2018 for Yankees… 0-1 with 22.50 ERA in 2018 playoffs vs a cheating Boston team who knew what pitches were coming … If they don’t cheat and he wins that game and they go on to win the 2018 world series they’re making a yankeeography of him – not wondering if they are going to trade him for a bucket of balls
Makes perfect sense. He’ll go 6-2 and get traded for about $7M in salary relief about the same time that German and Garcia are ready for starting roles.
Masahiro Tanaka: the best $23 million #5 in baseball
#4
Especially in the playoffs.
The Phillies would gladly have him back in their rotation.