Blue Jays: J.A. Happ picks up hand, foot, and mouth disease

After just one start with the New York Yankees, former Toronto Blue Jay J.A. Happ has picked up hand, foot, and mouth disease, and is the second MLB player to pick up the strange virus.

It’s almost a certainty that J.A. Happ‘s chances of pitching in the postseason have improved since being traded to the New York Yankees. What he didn’t count on was becoming the second New York athlete in July to pick up hand, foot, and mouth disease.

Happ becomes the second MLB player to pick up the virus, one that’s normally associated with children. In fact, cbssports.com points out that the Mayo Clinic even describes hand, foot, and mouth as something that happens in youth. Very odd indeed that Happ has contracted the problem at the age of 35.

He’s not the only MLB player with the issue though, and he’s not even the only pitcher employed in New York with the rare problem. On the other side of the city, Noah Syndergaard of the New York Mets was the first player to go down. He was placed on the disabled list by the Mets on July 22nd, and makes his return to the mound later today, so at least his absence was short lived.

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The same is expected for Happ, who the Yankees hope will only have to miss one start before he’s able to return to the mound. The Bronx Bombers did shore up their rotation a little further before the deadline as well, adding Lance Lynn from the Minnesota Twins, so they should be able to weather the storm while Happ gets himself back to 100%.

The former Blue Jay looked good in his first start as a Yankee, allowing just three hits and one run across six innings in his new uniform against the Kansas City Royals. He arrived in New York in exchange for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney a week ago, and should provide an underrated boost to his new team. The Yankees are hoping that he can join Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, and C.C. Sabathia to form an improved rotation, and one that can compete when the playoffs roll around. That wasn’t going to happen in Toronto this year, hence why he was shipped out before his current contract runs out at the end of the year.

As strange as it is that Happ (and Syndergaard) contracted the virus, it’s also not life-threatening by any means, or even really that serious. The Illinois native should be back to doing what he does best sooner than later. It’s just too bad that has to happen in a Yankee uniform.