Twins Finally Sign a Free Agent… But It’s JA Happ

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Photo: Sean M. Haffey - Getty Images

Minnesota Twins fans were sick of waiting for their favorite team to make a free agency splash this offseason. This is a team that needs a legitimate mid-rotation (or better) starting pitcher, major upgrades to the bullpen, better defense and more power in the middle infield… oh, and Nelson Cruz back at DH.

All of that needs to be accomplished with just one month remaining before the start of Spring Training. So today, Falvine finally made a big time move… kind of.

JA Happ has been a bottom of the rotation type pitcher for his entire career and he’s now 38 years old. Now, he will be paid $8 million dollars by the Minnesota Twins in 2021.

Who is JA Happ?

Happ has had issues staying healthy in the latter part of his career, until the last two seasons. He pitched 161 innings in 2019 and 49 innings in a shortened 2020. Still, he made $17 million in each of those two seasons (prorated for games lost during pandemic).

Maybe he has a lot of good postseason experience, since we know how desperately the Twins need that? Well, in 15 career playoff games Happ has posted just 27.2 innings (he’s a starter) and a 5.86 ERA. Last postseason with the Yankees, he started one game, lasted 2.2 innings, surrendering 5 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks.

I hope 100% that Falvine makes me regret writing this blog and ever doubting their skills as a front office… I really do. But as of now, there seems to be a lot of ways to better spend $8M of Pohlad’s precious cash this offseason.

We’ll see what they do with the rest of it.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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