The Yankees had to have J.A. Happ. Not because he was the best pitcher available on the free-agent market, but because they passed on the best pitcher available on the free-agent market. Patrick Corbin was that best pitcher on the free-agent market and would have only cost money, and the Yankees chose to pass on the 29-year-old left-handed New York native and Yankees fan. They forced themselves into needing to have Happ.

Not only did they force themselves into a situation where they had to sign Happ, they had to do it on his terms. The Yankees only wanted to sign the 36-year-old to a two-year deal, but he wanted three, and once Corbin was off the board, the Yankees were in no position to hold on their stance, eventually caving to Happ’s third-year demand. I wanted Happ back, after the team passed on Corbin. I thought it made sense to bring Happ back, after the team passed on Corbin. He wasn’t the best free-agent option, he was the best option once the best option was no longer available.

At the time, I wrote, “I’m not scared of Happ’s age or the diminishing spin rate on his fastball (at least not yet).” Well, I am now.

Happ hasn’t been bad this season, he’s been awful. Luis Severino was bad for most of the second half of last season, Sonny Gray was awful last season. That’s the difference. I thought the Yankees ridded themselves of a Gray-like problem for 2019, but Happ has stepped up and filled in seamlessly for the former Yankee bust.

Monday’s night disastrous start in Baltimore was Happ’s fourth start against the last-place Orioles this season, and the third time he has failed to go even 4 2/3 innings against them. He lasted only 3 2/3 innings in his latest flop, allowing six earned runs on nine hits and walk, while striking out three and giving up another pair of home runs. His total line against the Orioles this season: 17 IP, 24 H, 15 R, 15 ER, 7 BB, 14 K, 7 HR, 7.94 ERA, 1.824 WHIP. Thankfully, the Yankees came back from a 6-1 deficit to win 10-7 and didn’t waste what should have been an easy win over a much inferior opponent, but that doesn’t change the fact that Happ is the first-place Yankees’ biggest problem.

Happ’s 5.16 ERA and 13 home runs allowed in 52 2/3 innings tells a lot of the story though not all of it. I hate the stat and term “quality start” because it rewards pitchers with a 4.50 ERA, but a 4.50 ERA right now for Happ would be welcome. In his 10 starts, only three of them have been “quality” as he has failed to pitch five innings in four of them and failed to pitch six innings in seven of them. Thanks to the opposition’s equally bad pitching in his starts, the Yankees are 7-3 though that record is more about the level of competition Happ has faced since only two of his starts were against teams .500 or better. He’s not only taking the team out of games and forcing the offense to pick him up, he’s destroying the bullpen and with each game tied to the next, a reliever might be unavailable one game because he had to step in and record outs for Happ the game before.

I don’t know where the guy the Yankees traded for at last season’s deadline is. Where is the Happ who went 7-0 in 11 starts with a 2.69 ERA and 1.052 WHIP? Where is the Happ who created a month-long conversation over whether or not he should pitch the one-game playoff instead of Severino? Where is the Happ who Yankees fans felt confident with every time it was his turn to pitch? The last time we saw that Happ was before Game 1 of the ALDS, before he went out and ruined that game just three batters in. Since then, Happ has looked every bit like a 36-year-old pitcher who relies on his low-90s fastball command to succeed, and when he doesn’t have it, there’s no finding it.

If this is the end of the road for this version of Happ then he has four-plus months to sit down with CC Sabathia and find out how to reinvent himself with breaking balls and offspeed pitches and avoid the type of career drought Sabathia endured when his fastball left him. I don’t think Happ will be afforded the endless chances Sabathia was given for three seasons, especially in the middle of a championship window and with the margin of error for winning the division over the Rays and Red Sox being so small.

The Yankees are stuck with Happ for this season and the next two. With Severino and James Paxton on the injured list and the pitching depth depleted with Jonathan Loaisiga also injured, there’s nowhere to turn and no answer to the Yankees’ worrisome pitching problem other than to have Happ turn it around.

“We won in spite of me tonight,” Happ said on Monday night, looking lost as he answered questions as to why he continues to get knocked around each time he takes the mound. “Tonight was just a tough one and I don’t know that I have an answer for it. They hit the bad pitches, they hit the good pitches, and I just got beat tonight. My plan is to get bitter and figure it out.”

The Yankees have won in spite of Happ a few times this season, though he’s right, he needs to figure it out. The Yankees don’t have any other options other than to give him the ball every five days and let him find the answer.

The Yankees need the J.A. Happ they traded for and the one they thought they were bringing back through free agency. Without him, avoiding the one-game playoff for the fourth time in five seasons is going to be impossible.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The Yankees are in first place. That shouldn’t be something to boast about this “early” in the season, and in another time it wouldn’t have even been something worth mentioning because it was expected. But when you haven’t won the division in any of the last six seasons and have spent most of those seasons chasing the division leader only to settle for a wild-card berth, being in first place through 45 games in the best division in baseball isn’t nothing.

The Yankees achieved sole possession of first place by winning four of six against the Rays over the last two weeks and sandwiching in a doubleheader sweep of the Orioles during that time. It certainly wasn’t easy to win the series over the weekend at the Stadium and at times it seemed like the Yankees were fine with not beating their direct competition for the division crown.

Let’s look back at the three games and how the Yankees took over first place in the AL East.

FRIDAY
The Yankees got to Rays’ opener Ryne Stanek early when Kendry Morales hit a ball that would have hit The Dugout if Yankee Stadium lacked seats. The ball barely missed reaching the upper deck — a feat accomplished by very few in this version of the Stadium — and Morales had to settle for his first Yankees home run only reaching the third of four decks.

The solo home run held up for a couple innings until CC Sabathia allowed a frozen rope, line-drive home run off the bat of Willy Adames to left field. The home run would be the only run allowed by Sabathia as he would put together his longest start of the season, lasting six innings and throwing 84 pitches (6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR). Once Sabathia was removed from the game to begin the seventh and Aaron Boone got his hands on the game is when the game took a turn for the worst.

Boone brought in Adam Ottavino and he quickly retired the first two batters he faced before allowing a four-pitch walk. Despite only throwing 10 pitches, Boone removed the right-handed Ottavino for the also right-handed Tommy Kahnle to face the left-handed Austin Meadows, thinking Kahnle could now serve as his lefty specialist with the return of his velocity, command and changeup. Meadows singled off Kahnle on a 1-2 pitch, but Kahnle worked around the first-and-second jam, striking out Avisail Garcia to end the inning.

The Yankees didn’t score in the bottom half of the seventh, and I immediately thought we would either see Kahnle return since he had only thrown nine pitches or Zack Britton. Neither would go to the mound as Boone called on Chad Green. The same pitcher who had been sent down in late April after allowing 14 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings, including seven in 1/3 of an inning. Upon returning to the majors, he struck out the side in a six-run game in Tampa, and apparently that was enough to catapult his way from not being good enough for the majors to pitching in the eighth inning of a tie game with first place on the line. Green allowed a pair of doubles and a single and after his inning of work, the Yankees trailed 3-1. It was an easily predictable and inevitable outcome to everyone other than the manager of the team. Boone let Ottavino throw 10 pitches and Kahnle nine to get through a tie game in the seventh inning, and with the same score in the eighth, he gave Green an entire inning.

The Yankees trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth when Luke Voit destroyed the first pitch of the night from Jose Alvarado over the fence in right field to cut the deficit to one, and Gary Sanchez followed with a line-drive single to left. Morales struck out for the first out of the inning, but Gleyber Torres fought through a 10-pitch at-bat and doubled off the wall in left field on a ball John Sterling called as a walk-off home run on the radio. The Rays chose to intentionally walk Clint Frazier and load the bases for Cameron Maybin. Maybin just had to stand there on the first pitch of his at-bat as Alvarado pulled a slider into the dirt and it bounced to the backstop as Thairo Estrada, pinch-running for Sanchez, raced home to tie the game. With the winning run on third, Maybin hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning.

That brought up Gio Urshela with runners on second and third and two outs. Urshela got ahead 2-0 and then drove what should have been a double to right-center, but will go down in the record books as a single to right-center to score Frazier and win the game, 4-3.

Boone’s awful decisions had been erased by an improbable ninth-inning comeback and the postgame attention would be on Urshela playing the role of hero again rather than on the manager’s ineptitude. Thankfully, just before Boone’s postgame press conference ended, he was asked why he went to Green for the eighth inning. His answer? Britton was unavailable. So if you went into the game knowing Britton would be unavailable, why have such a quick hook for both Ottavino and Kahnle?

The Yankees had sole possession of first place, but in terms of the big picture, Boone once again displayed his inability to make the right choices in a close and important game.

SATURDAY
Clint Frazier has been bad since his return from the injured list, but no matter how bad he’s been, there’s no reason he should be sitting against a left-handed pitcher so Brett Gardner can play, let alone maybe the best left-handed pitcher in the world and the reigning AL Cy Young winner. However, that’s exactly how Boone wrote out his lineup on Saturday. To make matters worse, later in the game, Boone called on Frazier to pinch hit for Gardner against a lefty. So Gardner is allowed to face maybe the best lefty in the world, but not a left-handed middle reliever?

The Yankees got to Snell when he yanked a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the third inning. That would be the only run in the game as Snell struck out nine over six innings and Masahiro Tanaka one-upped by pitching six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and no walks with six strikeouts. Tanaka was drilled in the ankle by a batted ball for the third out of the sixth inning and with his pitch count at 88, it was unlikely he would return for the seventh and the ball off the ankle confirmed it.

Tommy Kahnle entered for the seventh and immediately gave up his first earned run since April 10, allowing a solo home run to Brandon Lowe. The Yankees were held scoreless in the seventh and game remained 1-1 to start the eighth. Oddly enough, Chad Green wasn’t brought in for the eighth, despite the score and inning being the exact same as the night before. Miraculously, Zack Britton was available and he pitched a 1-2-3 inning.

Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect ninth and Jonathan Holder did the same in the 10th as the Rays’ bullpen matched the Yankees’ Super Bullpen. Boone’s eagerness to pull his relievers after an inning each no matter their pitch count meant they would eventually have to get their lesser relievers. Kahnle was pulled after 11 pitches, Britton after 10, Chapman after 13 and even Holder after 11. Luis Cessa came in for the 11th and for anyone who has watched every major league appearance of Cessa, you knew the tie would be broken. Two batters into Cessa’s outing, it was, as he allowed a solo home run to Austin Meadows.

The Yankees looked like they might have ninth-inning magic for the second consecutive day after Luke Voit singled off Jose Alvarado to lead off the ninth, but Aaron Hicks struck out, and Gary Sanchez, who was 0 for 4 with four strikeouts, grounded into a double play to end the game.

Back to second place.

SUNDAY
I thought it was a joke, an unfunny joke, but a joke nonetheless when it was announced Chad Green would start Sunday’s game as an “opener”. It was embarrassing enough the Yankees were mimicking their opponent’s revolutionary change to the game, not smart enough to think of it themselves, but the whole point of the opener is to use an elite reliever to get through the top half of the order before letting a starter or another reliever see the weaker part of the lineup. Not only is Green no longer elite, but he’s barely in the majors, and his resume starting games is what sent him to the bullpen in the first place.

Green walked the first batter of game, and thankfully he was caught stealing second, as the second batter of the game doubled to right field. The third batter lined out to deep center and the fourth batter struck out swinging. Green needed 19 pitches in the first, and while he held the Rays scoreless, the first three batters were enough of an indication he would get knocked around if he stayed in the game. Boone disagreed.

The Yankees gave Green a 1-0 lead for the second inning and after a pair of groundouts it seemed like Green might actually get through his opening appearance. That thought lasted last than a minute as Green allowed back-to-back home runs on three pitches to Kevin Kiermaier and Willy Adames. Four pitches later, he drilled Daniel Robertson in the head. The high exit velocity and shear luck of baseball in the first inning wasn’t enough for Boone to pull Green. The back-to-back home runs weren’t enough either. It wasn’t until his lack of command left Robertson on the ground helmetless that Boone decided Green didn’t have it.

Chance Adams has been on the Yankees roster for what seems like forever now without pitching. If he wasn’t going to start or open Sunday’s game or come on as the second in relief and pitch four or five innings then why is he even on the roster wasting away when he could be developing more in Triple-A? Boone continued to let that question linger as he went to Nestor Cortes after Green. The same Cortes who the 47-win Orioles didn’t want, who allowed two earned runs in two innings in his Yankees debut in Tampa last week and who Orioles fan tweeted at me about this week to laugh at the Yankees for rostering him.

The Yankees gave another lead to their bullpen for the third inning, but Cortes wanted no part of pitching with a 3-2 lead. He walked the leadoff hitter and with one out gave up a double. Two pitches after the double, Brandon Lowe took him deep to center and the Yankees’ one-run lead was now a 5-3 deficit.

Boone stuck with Cortes in the fourth and when Aaron Hicks hit a two-run, game-tying home run in the bottom half of the fourth, I was sure Boone would now go to his Super Bullpen. Nope. Cortes came back out for the fifth. With the game still tied at 5, Boone would certainly go to the Super Bullpen for at least the last 12 outs, right? Nope. Cortes came back out for the sixth. At this point, I began to wonder why the Yankees were OK with losing to the Rays and handing them first place? The longer Cortes remained in the game, the higher the odds were the Rays would score against him and Boone seemed to be fine with letting Cortes stay in until that happened. It wasn’t until Cortes put two on with two outs in the sixth that Boone decided he had played with fire enough and called on Adam Ottavino to get out of the inning, which he did.

The Yankees scored seven runs in the sixth and added another in the seventh to win the game 13-5. Adams finally got to pitch, shutting out the Rays for the final three innings of the game, and for his effort, he was immediately sent down after the game. Green and Cortes? They’re still Yankees, waiting for Boone to inexplicably use them in the near future.

The Yankees are in first place by themselves. With a week of games against the Orioles and Royals, I expect them to stay there.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

Today is May 15. April 1 was 45 days ago. April 1 was the day Giancarlo Stanton went on the injured list with a biceps strain. Somehow between April 1 and now, Stanton developed a mysterious shoulder injury, a rather serious injury since it’s now kept him out of the lineup for over a month, and no one seems to know what it is or when he’ll return.

Stanton told reporters he hurt himself swinging at a 3-1 pitch during his third at-bat on March 31. He winced and wiggled his arm after the swing, but thought it might be a cramp so he remained in the game. The following day, he said he hoped for a “speedy” recovery.

“I don’t like it at all,” Stanton said on April 1. “I just worked for six weeks to get here, plus the offseason. I’d much rather this would have popped in spring training, but it’s where we’re at. I don’t have to start from scratch when I come back, but I’ve just got to build everything up and make sure everything is ready to go when I’m back.”

Yet another injured Yankee at the time, and yet another injured Yankee, who initially thought he would be out for the minimal injured list time of 10 days and wouldn’t have to build completely back up.

“In the middle of the game, you’ve got your adrenaline pumping,” Stanton said. “You want to stay out there. Once you’ve settled down and get undressed and showered, that’s when your gauges are a little better. Things start tightening up if they’re not right.”

At the time, the Yankees were without Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius in the lineup. Stanton would also be joined by Miguel Andujar on the injured list that day, and four of the nine regular everyday players would be missing after three games.

“Especially how last year went, a bunch of us were down,” Stanton said. “We didn’t really have our full squad the whole year. All that goes into it, especially where we’re at now. It’s unfortunate right now. I guess it’s better to be in the beginning than the end of the year.”

Aaron Boone said Stanton would be completely shut down for 10 days before beginning to work his way back.

“Hopefully we get him back at some point this month,” Boone said.

Just like the situation with Hicks, Aaron Boone was fooled into thinking the injury would be nothing more than a minor thing. On April 2, Jon Heyman reported the “Yankees are hopeful Stanton can be back in three weeks.”

On April 9, it was reported Stanton might hit off a tee the following day (April 10) or the day after that (April 11).

Five days later, on April 14, Stanton said his rehab for his left biceps strain is “on track,” but was unsure of when he would return, while also saying he stills feels the strain “a little bit.” He took swings the day before (April 13) for the second time since suffering the injury though had yet to swing at 100 percent. Asked if he would need a rehab game, he said he wouldn’t.

“At this point, I wouldn’t need one,” Stanton said. “But if I’m out three or four weeks, I probably should.”

The Yankees were in Anaheim on April 22 in the middle of a nine-game, 10-day West Coast trip when they announced Stanton was now dealing with a shoulder issue and would see a specialist in Southern California. He would receive a cortisone shot in his shoulder that day. The biceps injury had healed and now there was a shoulder injury to deal with.

“He’s had some shoulder stuff in the past,” Boone said in Anaheim. “I don’t know if it’s a little bit of a result of that. We figured now while he’s down coming from this, let’s just make sure we treat this the best we can so it doesn’t become a lingering issue if we can help it.”

Stanton had a shoulder injury with the Marlins back in 2013, but that was six years ago. For Boone to hint it could be related to that and then say he doesn’t want this to be a lingering issue, wouldn’t a six-year-old shoulder injury popping up be the exact definition of a “lingering issue”?

“He has had some residual stuff with his shoulder,” Boone said. “He got a shot, here a couple of days ago. So he is in Day 2 or 3 of not swinging.”

Stanton would remain in Southern California to work with a rehab specialist, while the team went on to San Francisco for a three-game weekend series. Stanton would then rejoin the team in Arizona the following week.

“We’ve got to let the shot settle, and that’s probably another day or two of no swinging,” Boone said. “Then he should be able to ramp up pretty quick and start swinging when we get to Arizona.”

On May 6, five days after the team had left Arizona, Stanton spoke to the media for the first time since the shoulder issue was reported and gave the vaguest of answers in regards to the mysterious injury.

“Just give it some extra time,” Stanton said. “The biceps blowing out, the whole arm had to get strength to build with each other. Just give it more time.”

Stanton had clearly been informed of the Yankees’ new media strategy of not giving any sense of a target return date after the debacle that began last July with Aaron Judge’s wrist injury and continued this season with various missed timetables and missed diagnosis.

“I don’t know,” Stanton said in reference to a timetable for his return. “Start swinging again and then go from there.”

Clearly annoyed with the questions, Stanton continued to be vague.

“Just going to ramp it up and see how it goes,” Stanton said. “So there’s no major update for you guys.”

The same “ramp it up” Boone spoked about 11 days earlier? When asked another time in a different way to try to pull an answer from him, Stanton didn’t budge.

“No major update for you guys,” Stanton said. “Hit tomorrow, then go from there.”

Stanton did begin to hit, and on May 11, Boone offered an update.

“Reports are it went pretty well yesterday,” Boone said. “He hit a fair amount.”

This Monday, on May 13, Stanton took live at-bats for the first time and was going to do the same on Tuesday. He’s at the Yankees’ Player Development complex in Tampa hitting off live pitching and performing defensive drills. Brian Cashman said Stanton was “progressing” while Boone gave the weirdest injury update of all time to MLB.com.

“Just not quite right,” Boone said regarding Stanton’s shoulder. “I don’t know the exact diagnosis of it. He’s through the biceps injury, but there has just been that lingering shoulder stuff that he’s trying to get knocked out. Basically, it’s just coming back from that now and ramping up.”

Another “ramping up” reference! Boone continued and said there’s no tear in his shoulder though that doesn’t mean there isn’t one given the Yankees’ diagnosis of their players this season.

“No, it’s just … whatever,” Boone said. “I mean, guys have different stuff going on with their … and he’s got … I don’t know what exactly is going on in there other than it’s obviously not exactly right or else he would have been back a bit ago.”

A “whatever”? Is that the official diagnosis for the left shoulder injury of a player owed $270 million, who originally went on the injured list with a biceps issue?

“Moving in the right direction,” Boone continued. “I think he had like nine at-bats yesterday and more of the same today, doing hsi defensive work and running. So I feel like hopefully he’s moving to really start to get some at-bats and we can start thinking about getting him back.”

Pressed for a more detailed answer, Boone was asked if this whole situation was unusual.

“Right, and he doesn’t have a perfect shoulder by any means,” Boone said. “He’s dealt with varying degreees of just a dead period or some soreness in there and whatnot. As far as a diagnosis of what exactly it is, I don’t have it for you.”

The manager of the New York Yankees has been without his highest-paid player for exactly a month and a half at this point and hasn’t been informed of the player’s injury? An injury which popped up despite the player already being on the injured list for a different injury, and the different injury originally had a timetable of an April return.

This Boone update came a day after the Yankees put Miguel Andujar back on the injured list for the labrum tear they said he was ready to play with earlier this month, and now he made need surgery on it. Boone was hesitant to give any real insight or information into the injury and certainly wasn’t going to offer a timetable after saying back on April 1 he thought Stanton could be back sometime in April. It’s understandable given how Boone and the Yankees completely botched Aaron Judge’s wrist injury timetable last season, botched Hicks’s spring training injury this season, were uninformed about Luis Severino’s lat problem, sat Gary Sanchez for a leg issue and then let him enter a game only to them put him on the injured list and let Clint Frazier play the remaining three innings of a game before putting him on the injured list. The Yankees might never offer a timetable on a player again following this season’s embarrassment.

No one knows when Stanton will actually be back. He’s played in three of the team’s 40 games, and has yet to play in a rehab game, which he originally said he wouldn’t need way back on April 14.

This whole situation is confusing, but when it comes to the 2019 Yankees, it’s certainly not surprising.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!