J.A. Happ is one of several players who is not covered in the agreement that MLB and the players association finalized Monday on how to compute vesting options for the abbreviated 2020 season.
That almost certainly will be a positive for the Yankees.
Because under the agreement that works as an umbrella for most players, MLB and the union agreed that vesting options will be paid in full, but that the triggers would be prorated for the abbreviated 60-game season.
Happ has a $17 million vesting option for 2021. In a standard season that option would have vested if he reached either 27 starts or 165 innings in 2020. If he were under the new arrangement, Happ would trigger his vesting option at either 10 starts or 61 ¹/₃ innings.
But the March agreement between MLB and the players association has a list of players (which includes Happ) with special covenants who would need to have provisions — in Happ’s case his vesting option — renegotiated or have the issue go to arbitration. The expectation, therefore, is the Yankees and Happ will either finalize different thresholds at which the option vests and/or lower the value of the option, or else an arbitrator will rule on what to do.
This benefits the Yankees because they like Happ, but not enough to risk triggering his 2021 option. The Yankees, with considerably less revenue coming in this year and uncertainty about if fans will even be allowed to attend games in 2021, would not want to pay a back-end starter $17 million next year, especially since they have starters they like more also coming up on free agency in James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka, and a position player in DJ LeMahieu.
If the Yanks are in a position in which they want to lower payroll, Happ would not be a priority.
Nevertheless, as things are structured right now, they also do not want to be in position in which they limit Happ’s innings if he is pitching well.
Happ looked good both in the first spring training and this current 2.0 version and is important to this roster. Luis Severino and Domingo German will not pitch this year. Tanaka was hit in the head by a Giancarlo Stanton line drive and no public disclosure has yet been made if he will be able to begin the season in the rotation. Aroldis Chapman and Luis Cessa are out after testing positive for COVID-19, hitting at depth to spread around innings.
A healthy starter likely would get 12 starts in a 60-game season. Thus, the Yankees would not want to be in position to limit Happ to fewer than 10 by, for example, using an opener at least three times in front of the lefty. In 12 outings, Happ would only have to average a tad more than five innings to eclipse the 61 ¹/₃ innings needed to have the option vest, if that were his threshold.
At the moment, Happ would be part of a rotation with Gerrit Cole, Paxton, Tanaka (if healthy) and Jordan Montgomery.