Yankees acquire J.A. Happ from Blue Jays: Media reactions

Trade season is officially in full swing for the Yankees. They struck a deal for reliever Zach Britton earlier this week, and yesterday, they moved to shore up their rotation by bringing in J.A. Happ. The Yankees have been linked to Happ for weeks, but the rumors really started heating up over the past couple days. Now, they have their man, in exchange for infielder Brandon Drury and Triple-A outfielder Billy McKinney.

We’ve provided our perspectives on the trade here at Pinstripe Alley. Let’s take a trip around Twitter to see how the rest of the media reacted:

The Yankees did what they needed to do to address a major hole in their rotation, but many observers felt that the Blue Jays did well with their return. Happ is a much better player than both Drury and McKinney right now, but Drury still has over three years of team control, and McKinney has rookie eligibility. That’s plenty of time for either to come back to haunt the Yankees once Happ’s three-month term with the team is up.

If the Yankees paid a high price, it might be because of the decent amount of competition there was for Happ. He just might be the best starter that is readily available on the market, so it’s not surprising there was plenty of interest in Happ, or that the Blue Jays were able to get a satisfactory return for him.

Here’s an interesting point. The Yankees gave up a pair of mid-level prospects for Drury, so, along with McKinney, they’ve essentially turned a trio of serviceable farmhands into a half-season of Happ. Is that an overpay? Will the price be justified if Happ can help turn the tide in the race with the Red Sox?

Speaking of Boston, there was plenty of discussion of Happ’s numbers against the Yankees’ primary rival:

Personally, I see little reason to believe that a pitcher’s numbers in small samples against particular teams and players, culled across several different years, offer any predictive value. Still, people seem impressed with Happ’s work against the Red Sox, and hey, it certainly doesn’t hurt that Happ has pitched well in Boston before.

Drury’s inclusion in the trade was sensible, since there just wasn’t much playing time for him, and he deserves a chance to see if he’s a major-league regular. Still, it’s unfortunate things went so sideways during his brief time in New York. Drury has dealt with myriad injuries and tough breaks, and admitted to struggling with vision problems early in the year. Hopefully he has better luck staying healthy and on the field in Toronto.

McKinney seems to have stumbled onto his own strange, inconvenient strand of Even Year Magic. He will be on to his fourth organization in five seasons. It’s easy to just look at prospects as names on a spreadsheet and as capital to be utilized, but they are people, and having to repeatedly pack up and move at a moment’s notice, while getting paid peanuts to play in the minors, can’t be easy.

After hearing all about Justus Sheffield’s desire for a new roommate after seeing his current one shipped away in the Britton deal, we have even more roommate coverage. 26-year-old outfielder Mark Payton, currently at Triple-A, has roomed with three former Yankee outfield prospects that have been traded over the past year. Stay away from this guy if you’re not looking to be relocated any time soon.

After augmenting the Yankees’ already-super bullpen and shoring up to the rotation, you could forgive Brian Cashman for calling it a deadline, but he doesn’t sound like a man who’s ready to rest. This might be the conclusion of the Yankees’ trade business, or, Cashman could pull something out of thin air at the last minute.

Ninja Cash is always lurking. The Happ deal wasn’t really an appearence of Ninja Cash, though:

This trade, in truth, was somewhat predictable. The Yankees had one glaring weakness, and the Blue Jays had the pitcher who profiled as the best solution. A deal made plenty of sense, and the Yankees are now a better team for it.