Blue Jays: J.A. Happ traded to the New York Yankees

The Blue Jays have traded J.A. Happ to the Yankees for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney.

The long-waited Happ trade has become a reality. The Blue Jays will send All-Star starter J.A. Happ to the Yankees in exchange for third baseman Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney. The Milwaukee Bewers were also in the mix for Happ along the Cubs, Rockies and Athletics.

Happ’s second stint in Toronto officially comes to an end after two very good 2016 and 2017 seasons and ultimately this 2018 season in which he led the Blue Jays pitching staff in all departments.

In exchange for Happ, the Blue Jays do not get a top prospect from the Yankees organization but they do get young, controllable players with some MLB experience under their belts. Drury, 25, is under team control for three more seasons after this one and has played two full seasons in the majors with the Diamondbacks before being traded to the Yankees this past off-season.

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He has a career .267 average and .755 OPS. The right handed batter has some pop too. In 2016 he hit 16 home runs and 31 doubles, followed by 13 bombs and 37 doubles in 2017. This season with the Yankees he has only played 18 games in which he’s hit just .176 in 57 plate appearances. Drury can also play in the outfield corners, second base, and even first base, although he is primarily a third baseman.

The acquisition of Drury may seem a bit surprising considering the Blue Jays have quite a logjam in the infield with Yangervis Solarte, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Aledmys Diaz, Devon Travis, Josh Donaldson and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the minors with Bo Bichette. However, considering this might very well be Donaldson’s last season as a Blue Jay, and that Devon Travis can get hurt easily, having versatile players in the team won’t hurt. Adding on to that, there was some trade interest in Solarte according to reports, so perhaps the Blue Jays might shop Solarte in the coming days.

The other player coming to Toronto from the Yankees is the 23 year old outfielder Billy McKinney. McKinney made his major league debut against the Blue Jays in the first series of the season in Rogers Center, in which he hit his first major league hit off Aaron Sanchez with a single to right field. A couple of days later he was placed on the disabled list with a left shoulder sprain after crashing into the left field wall in Rogers Centre. After healing from the injury he was sent to Triple-A Scranton where he’s hit just .227 with 13 homers, but with a high slugging percentage of .498 which leads to his decent OPS of .795. McKinney is ranked 20th among Yankees prospects. MLB pipeline’s report on McKinney says some scouts saw his upside as a .280 hitter with 20 home runs per season after his 2017 surge.

Considering JA Happ is a rental, with an ERA of 4.18, and who’s had a bad last month, Blue Jays fans should be pretty content with the return. The Blue Jays get a versatile, young player in Brandon Drury who has already shown what he can do at the big league level, along Billy McKinney who has the potential to be a very decent outfielder with power according to scouting reports. And don’t forget Blue Jays fans, JA Happ is gone, but he could very well be back in the off-season as a free agent in just some months.