Signing lefty starter Happ means Price likely out of the picture
In a move that likely signals an end to the club’s efforts to re-sign David Price, the Blue Jays signed another familiar left-handed starting pitcher on Friday, inking J.A. Happ to a three-year, $36-million (U.S.) deal.
Happ, 33, previously pitched in Toronto from midway through the 2012 season through to the end of 2014 before he was dealt to the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Michael Saunders.
The six-foot-five Illinois native was mediocre in the first half of last season with the Mariners — posting a 4.64 ERA in 20 starts — but dramatically turned his year around after he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the deadline. Happ was one of the National League’s top pitchers over the final two months of the season, pitching to a 1.85 ERA while dramatically increasing his strikeout totals.
It was that strong homestretch — largely credited to Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage — that likely earned him the significant payday from the Jays, which nearly doubles his career earnings.
The move was met with disappointment by Jays’ fans, however, as it strongly suggests the organization has given up hope of bringing back Price, the marquee trade-deadline acquisition who helped end the franchise’s 21-year playoff drought.
With roughly $45 million now committed for the upcoming season to a group of six starting pitchers — Happ, Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada, R.A. Dickey, Jesse Chavez and Drew Hutchison — it’s highly unlikely the Jays will be in a position to compete with the deep-pocketed Cubs, Dodgers and Red Sox for Price, who is expected to command a seven-year deal in excess of $200 million.
Over his eight-year career, Happ has largely been an unspectacular — but durable — southpaw, who has occasionally glimpsed the ability to be more than the mid-rotation arm suggested by his face-value numbers.
Though he doesn’t throw especially hard, he has flashed above-average strikeout numbers, most recently in the final two months of this season when he whiffed more than a quarter of the batters he faced. His career numbers are much lower than that, though.
Happ’s tenure in Toronto was mostly disappointing, marked by injury and underperformance. Acquired prior to the trade deadline in 2012 as part of a 10-player swap with the Astros — signing a two-year, $8.9 million extension before the 2013 season — Happ struggled to find a stable footing while being shuttled between the bullpen and starting rotation. He also pitched poorly with frustrating inefficiency, making it beyond the sixth inning just once in his first dozen starts with the Jays.
Then, while pitching against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, he was drilled in the head with a sharp line drive off the bat of Desmond Jennings in one of the scariest injuries ever suffered by a Blue Jay.
Happ, who suffered a fracture to his skull on the play, was removed from the field on a stretcher. But ironically it was a knee injury — incurred as he crumpled to the ground after being struck — that kept him out the next three months.
Injuries again limited Happ in 2014 as he started the season on the disabled list, but once he resettled he put together a solid second half, mostly by lowering his dreadful walk rate.
By investing a second time in Happ, the Jays are banking that his recent success was no mirage — and that their world-beating offence won’t need an ace.