Happ turns into Yankees’ unlikely ace
Former Blue Jay has baffled batters since landing in Bronx
Long before he became their summer saviour, J.A. Happ was a footnote in New York Yankees history. In Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, as a reliever for the Philadelphia Phillies, Happ allowed a two-run double to Hideki Matsui in the fifth inning. The hit gave Matsui six runs batted in for the night, matching a World Series record. The Yankees clinched the title a few innings later.
“Matsui, I remember that,” Happ said on Wednesday. “Hanging slider. He was a monster.”
Happ is 35 now, with his next birthday a few days before the World Series.
He has not been back and neither have the Yankees. Happ won a championship ring just 10 games into his career, in 2008, and when the Phillies returned to the World Series, veterans told him to savour it.
“I’m like, ‘I’m trying, but I don’t know any different — it’s crazy awesome,’ ” Happ said. “But now, having played awhile, you realize how hard it is to get to the post-season and how hard it is to advance — but also how exciting it is. It makes you just crave to get back there.”
The Yankees acquired Happ from the Toronto Blue Jays for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney on July 26. Nine days earlier, Happ had closed out the all-star game with his first save since his freshman year at Northwestern. He has won all five of his starts since the trade, with a 2.37 earned run average entering his scheduled start against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, though his biggest start may come in October if the Yankees end up in a wild-card game.
The last Yankee to start and win each of his first five games for the team was Bob Turley in 1955. But thriving after a midseason trade is nothing new for Happ. This was the fourth time he was dealt in July, and each time, he has had a winning record after the deal.
“He’s so poised and so under control and has such a good idea of what he’s trying to accomplish,” said the Yankees’ Neil Walker, a teammate in Pittsburgh three summers ago, when Happ had an 1.85 ERA in 11 starts down the stretch. “In ’15, there was no moment that was too big for him. And facing him when he was with Toronto, there was no situation too big for him.
“I was asked my opinion on him possibly coming here and that’s exactly what I said: ‘I think he’ll be able to seamlessly come in and throw the ball the same way as he has been all year’ — and, really, for the last several years.”
Happ left Pittsburgh and was 20-4 for the Blue Jays in 2016, when he also won a playoff start. He had not made one for the Pirates, who chose Gerrit Cole to start their wild-card game against the Chicago Cubs in 2015. Happ had pitched better down the stretch, but Cole had made the all-star team and was the Pirates’ homegrown ace.
“He was their guy,” Happ said. “We had all the faith in the world going into that game. It just didn’t work out for us.”
Cole wobbled through five shaky innings, but it didn’t matter much, because Jake Arrieta shut out the Pirates, 4-0. One hot pitcher can stifle an opponent at any time, which is why the Yankees would rather not have to play their third wild-card game in four seasons.
That is probably their fate, though, barring a collapse by the Boston Red Sox. Last October, against the Minnesota Twins, the Yankees survived a clunker by Luis Severino, who gave up two homers among his four hits, leaving in the first inning with a 3-0 deficit. The Yankees’ bullpen and bats saved them.
Severino is the Yankees’ nominal ace, like Cole for the 2015 Pirates. He is also the major league leader in victories, with 17. But Severino has a 6.56 ERA in his last nine starts, and opponents have hit .325. With a month to go, Happ is the Yankees’ most trustworthy starter.
“This is a guy I was really hoping we’d be able to get,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So him coming here and having success, I kind of expected it, just because of the high regard I have for him as a pitcher. He’s a guy with quality stuff but just a real simple, athletic, repeatable delivery, a really good demeanour on the mound. Whether he makes a great pitch or not, he’s able to just stay in rhythm and turn the page.”
Happ was not always so composed. In the minors, he struggled to control his emotions. He would pout and whine, he said, until his father, Jim, implored him to go easier on himself; sometimes, inevitably, everyone fails.
Happ also learned, deep into his major league career, to play to his strengths as a pitcher. Most pitchers throw harder than
Happ, whose fastball averages just under 92 m.p.h.
Happ’s fastball generates exceptional life through the strike zone, with the illusion of hop that allows him to get foul balls or swings and misses on pitches above the belt.
“When I was younger, I was trying to learn how to be like a Tom Glavine — throw four different pitches at any time down in the zone for strikes, expand the zone, be perfect, pinpoint,” Happ said. “That’s not who I was meant to be. I took awhile to try to fight that. And then when I stopped fighting that, things got better for me.”
As a staff, the Yankees throw the fewest fastballs in the majors. Happ ranks among the leaders in fastball usage. Yet the Yankees knew better than to change him, and now they should let him keep rolling, right on into the familiar playoff game they would rather avoid.