Revisiting Every Asset the Yankees Gave Up for JA Happ and James Paxton

In 2018 and 2019, the New York Yankees acquired a pair of lefties to try and round out their rotation. 2018 saw the arrival of JA Happ, a 2017 All-Star and 10-year veteran of Major League Baseball. In 2019, the got their hands on James Paxton, who had spent the previous six years with the Seattle Mariners.

Since then, the two have been regulars on the mound, but it's interesting to look back at who could have stayed in the pinstripes if the trades had't gone through.

To get Happ from the Blue Jays, the Yankees had to give up a pair of prospects who each spent some of 2018 in the Bronx. Utility infielder Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney were shipped off to Toronto, and they've both appeared in around 120 games since then. Neither Blue Jay has managed to impress, while Happ has been somewhat productive in New York. Happ was initially linked to trade talks after the Yankees acquired superstar pitcher Gerrit Cole, but Luis Severino's surgery has made his presence a necessity.

The 2019 trade for James Paxton cost the Yankees an extra player, but has arguably paid off in their favor. They had to give up top prospect Justus Sheffield, as well as lower-tier pitching prospect Erik Swanson and outfielder Dom Thompson-Williams. Sheffield has since recorded a 5.50 ERA with the Mariners, but he began to impress late in '19, as well as in Spring Training, with a 2.25 ERA in two starts before the league was shut down. Swanson posted a struggle-worthy 5.74 ERA in 27 games in Seattle last year.

In his time with the Yankees, Paxton has gone 15-6 with 186 strikeouts in 150.2 innings. He became the ace he'd always had the potential to be in the playoffs last season.

Both Happ and Paxton have been short-term players, but with improved or continued performance, they could be Yankees for quite some time. Whether the players they gave up were worth cutting ties with remains to be seen, but it's certainly trending in the right direction.