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JA Happ tries to throw and bite his tongue when he’s not.
He did well both Sunday nights. The veteran left-hander limited the comatose Red Sox to a run in 5 ² / ₃ innings in a 4-2 triumph, then mainly limited his public annoyance to how he is used – or more aptly – not used by the Yankees.
Happ was skipped around the last corner around the rotation and you can find legitimate reasons as to why that was the case, such as the Yankees wanting to use Gerrit Cole as much as possible and before Sunday the other starters had shown more than that. Happ either. season, this season or both.
But there is an elephant the size of Giancarlo Stanton standing on Aaron Judge’s shoulder in the room. Happ has a buyout option for 2021 for $ 17 million, and the Yankees don’t want anything to do with paying it that much, mostly because they have other free agents like DJ LeMahieu and Masahiro Tanaka that they’ll prefer. probably keep.
It is against the rules of the major leagues to deliberately manipulate the use to prevent a player from acquiring an option. And the Yankees always have these legitimate reasons to serve as a cover in case there ever is a grievance.
“This is a topic that I think I’m going to refrain from for now,” Happ said.
If there had been a 162-game season, Happ would have needed 27 starts or 165 innings in 2020 to trigger the option. There has been a dispute over Happ’s thresholds in this shortened pandemic season, but the lowest is the prorated tier for a 60-game season – 10 starts or 61 ¹ / ₃ innings.
Blowing himself up last time, Happ only made his third start on Sunday. If he has made each turn the rest of the way, there is just enough time left to get to 10 starts. But there’s a better chance Andy Pettitte will start a game for the 2020 Yankees than Happ will start 10. There will be a time when the Yankees just have to use an opener or want to see what Deivi Garcia or Clarke Schmidt want to see. can do.
This will all be billed as a manager’s decision, which Aaron Boone insisted it was.
But Happ conceded that he had two conversations in the chasm when he hadn’t started.
“One of them went really well and the second, I don’t think, went very well,” he said. He didn’t want to say more.
He knows the Yankees have a good thing going on this year. They opened 9-0 at home and 15-6 overall, and being a distraction for his teammates he loves and even appearing to be a disgruntled one with a tough free agent market is not a good thing. idea.
He said, “In due course on this front.” Which, if I had to translate, means it’s always time to grieve later. For now, Happ can continue to do what he did as the Yankees beat the Red Sox for a ninth time in a row, making it harder for the Yankees to jump him and – more importantly – more hard to suggest he should be the one to be ignored.
When asked ahead of Sunday’s game if Happ needs to pitch well to stay in the rotation, Boone said he expects the veteran to pitch well. When he insisted that wasn’t an answer to the question, Boone replied that Happ is one of his starters.
Happ then came out and did what Boone predicted – pitched well. He was more aggressive in the strike zone. This allowed him to be efficient, needing only 75 shots to register 17 outs. He worked effectively north and south. He didn’t dominate – it’s not really in its case these days. But he was exactly what the Yankees were hoping to be, which is a quality innings eater in the back of the rotation.
Kevin Pillar did a home run with two outs in the third inning. But Boston never even had another runner in goal position against Happ, which Boone called “awesome” after that effort.
“I always feel better when I attack like this,” Happ explained.
For now, he’s limiting those attacks to opposing hitters and the strike zone. There is a promising season for these Yankees and Happ is veteran enough to recognize both that and what’s going on with him.
So, for now, he’ll throw and bite his tongue when he doesn’t. At least for now.
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