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Raise your hand if you had “J.A. Happ provides any kind of return” on your 2021 Trading Deadline Bingo Cards.
The Twins are trading J.A. Happ to the Cardinals for LHP Evan Sisk and RHP John Gant, per source.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 30, 2021
Not only does Happ provide a return, he provides a return in the form of two interesting arms from the St. Louis Cardinals. John Gant is a righty swingman with control issues but a 115 ERA+ since 2018.
Evan Sisk is a lefty “prospect” sitting in Double-A ball at 24 years old; he’s running a 3.31 ERA and a 12.7 K/9. There’s certainly more numbers to unpack with him, but he’s had a pretty consistent track record since being drafted in the 16th round of 2018’s amateur draft. He isn’t a high-profile acquisition, but I think it’s worth being curious about any developing pitchers that Derek Falvey is interested in targeting.
We’ll explore more about why these arms are particularly interesting, but the primary takeaway should be that the Twins received anything of value, let alone a decent MLB reliever and a new lefty arm, for a guy with -1.9 bWAR and a 6.77 ERA this season.
Poll
What’s your first impression of the Happ trade?
This poll is closed
-
70%
A
(668 votes) -
17%
B
(167 votes) -
5%
C
(55 votes) -
2%
D
(21 votes) -
3%
F
(31 votes)