Toronto Blue Jays: Did they get enough in return for J.A. Happ?

After months of speculation, the Toronto Blue Jays finally traded J.A. Happ to the New York Yankees but did they get enough in return?

It has been a busy 24 hours for the Toronto Blue Jays front office trading both Seunghwan Oh and J.A. Happ ahead of the MLB trade deadline.

The deal with the New York Yankees sees Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney coming in exchange for Happ who gets to compete for the World Series. Since the deal was announced there have been mixed reviews for what the Blue Jays got back in return and whether it was enough.

The Blue Jays have been shopping Happ for a while and while he was among the top available rentals but his value took a bit of a hit with some of his struggles.

At the same time, there was interest from multiple teams which should have kept the value high. A team can ask for whatever they want especially when they’re in clear selling mode but in the end, the market dictates what teams need and are willing to give up.

A question that has been raised with this deal is why Toronto would ask for an infielder in return when the team has similar options on the roster already.

In an interview with David Singh of Sportsnet back in March, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had high praises for Drury who was acquired this past offseason.

"“He fits the narrative of a player that is young, controllable, talented,” Cashman said of Drury. “We felt he was out of position, because he had that big, left-handed monster in front of him in Arizona named Jake Lamb. So they had to move him to second and the outfield to try to get his bat into the lineup. But he’s really a third baseman.“Essentially, we feel he is at the very least an everyday major-league third baseman, if not a potential above-average, everyday third baseman,” added the GM. “We felt when we returned him back to third, we could get him back in the comfort level he was and he could unlock some of the potential in the swing because there were some things we saw that we felt allowed for more in the tank in terms of production. We’re going to test that theory.”"

This is the type of player that fits the mould of the Blue Jays because he’s ready to play in the major leagues and the team controls his future. They made it a point to address their positional player depth at the major league level with Teoscar Hernandez, Randal Grichuk, Yangervis Solarte and Almedys Diaz.

Now they add Drury who could gives the team a player of the same mould but is expected to be an upgrade otherwise they wouldn’t have traded for him.

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Is Drury going to blow people out of the water with what he brings to the table? Probably not, but he provides the team with a player that is capable of play every day and it’s tough to criticize considering how much the current team has struggled.

Like Drury, McKinney had his path to the majors blocked by a stacked lineup in New York. Some are not as thrilled with acquiring the 20th ranked prospect from the Yankees system but people should remember that the Yankees system is highly touted.

He is a player with a lot of power hitting .230/.294/.502 with 13 home runs in triple-A which is not bad but

The team doesn’t have as many players to deal with Happ and Oh gone and Josh Donaldson still sidelined but according to GM Ross Atkins, they still want to make moves.

With another rumour suggesting that the Atlanta Braves have shown interest in Marcus Stroman, Atkins seemed to dispell the idea of seeing a controllable player being on the move.

For now, the Blue Jays have made it clear that they’re attempting to turn things around and still have a lot of work to do but there seems to be a plan.

What do you think about the Happ trade? Did they get enough? Let us know in the comments below.