Making sense of the return in the Happ trade

I’m not sure what Jays fans expected to get for JA Happ, but many fans are not too happy at all about this Happ trade – and the damn dumb pun is not intended.

It was fun to stare down the Clint Frazier pipedream to nowhere land. And it was even more fun to inject Justus Sheffield thoughts into our galaxy veins, too. But, some of us realistically knew that the Yankees weren’t going to part with either of these prospects, right?

I mean, it’s crystally clear that fans always overvalue their own team’s players at this time of the year and some Jays fans have done that with Happ. Even though if you really look at what the Jays got in return for the steady-as-she-goes pitcher, it’s not too bad at all. It’s actually pretty good.

The truth is, I understand the underwhelmed head-scratching that went on when the details of the trade were as fresh as that smell I used to love from Silverstein’s Bakery on McCaul St.– sorry for the local Toronto reference. I really miss walking in there, a bit hungover, and buying a warm fresh loaf of marble rye. Anyway…

So, back to this Happ stuff, it seems to me from perusing different Yankees and Jays Twitter threads that a majority of fans from both sides are feeling upset with Thursday’s transaction. Maybe just as upset as I was when Silverstein’s Bakery closed it’s doors. Yankees fans wanted Jacob deGrom or Madison Bumgarner, not JA Happ.

Many dumb Yankees fans are hootin’ and hollerin’ about Happ going 0-3 with a 7.41 ERA in four July starts. Ignoring the fact that he is a Red Sox murdering savage. And, ya know, is really good and has a 3.63 xFIP – so big sarcastic thumbs up to dumb Yankees fans. This clever bunch of pinstripe whatevers are probably the same people who booed Giancarlo Stanton in April – so there’s that.

So when news broke about who was actually heading back in this epic all-summer-long-Happ-trade talk, some Jays fans were real pissed off – as some fickle fans always are. Fickling away in their fickle ways.

It was the same ol’ Fire Shapiro and Atkins into the shatkins sun kind of stuff mixed with some Brandon Drury huhs and Billy McKinney sighs. There was a loud millennial meh that stretched across the terrific land of Twitter and Reddit and all the other wonderful Internet armpits. God bless the Internet and it’s First World retweeting ways.

Here’s a Blue Jays beat tweet that is full of some real fickly fun:

What I think I love about this damn log to the mother effing infield jam is the unclear puzzle that we get to sit back and sip our wine to as it gets put together. I really don’t see how this is such a bad thing at all. It’s actually kind of fun during these shitty boring Blue Jays days, no?

The Jays obtained an MLB ready third baseman and utility player in Drury, who isn’t some prospect that could turn down Daniel Norris lane. Oh yeah, plus they picked up a potential power-hitting fourth outfielder, too – as you all know by now. And I don’t need to get into all the stats and stuff about Drury-Billy because Cam has already done that.

And what’s some cool AF shit is that there are so many more future Jays trades just up the Oh-Happ street and around the corner. There are so many fun conversations that you can have at your local dive bar that will go beyond all the Jays yawns of late. We have been sipping the bottle of Vlad all season and now we get to sip from the bottle of unclear puzzle and wait. I like unclear puzzles.

The Jays are in a position to trade players like Travis and Solarte. They are going to move more bullpen arms because moving bullpen arms is always a good idea. They are going to keep doing their future thing. So, who knows what the hell they have up their summer and offseason sleeves?

The Jays front office isn’t going to strip this thing down to Baltimore levels. There is no reason to think that there will be a full on rebuild and the future of fun isn’t too far away. The Jays are going to continue to do trade things. But, whatever they do, just keep that good ol’ realistic baseball thinking cap on through it all and just fucking enjoy it.