WATCH: Yankees’ Brian Cashman explains pulling off J.A. Happ trade

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman breaks down the trade with the Toronto Blue Jays that sent starting pitcher J.A. Happ to New York at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, July 26, 2018 (7/26/18).

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NEW YORK — Finally, Brian Cashman gave up the goods.

For days, Cashman said, he wrestled with the Blue Jays‘ asking price for veteran starting pitcher J.A. Happ. But Cashman knew the Yankees needed rotation help and that he didn’t want to see the 35-year-old lefty wind up in another uniform.

So, on Thursday, he agreed to send utility infielder Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney to Toronto.

Watch Cashman explain the full process in the video above.

What scout says about Happ

Below are quotes from Cashman:

On making the trade:

We’ve been in contact with a lot of teams, clearly, about the available starters in the market place. It’s an area of need that we tried to fill for a while. We had graded Happ as one of a few targets that were enviable. Ross Atkins and I just stayed in touch and tried to negotiate his acquisition cost for quite some time and finally decided to pull the trigger today. Obviously, we went through the medical process, and here we are. Hopefully he’s going to be a welcome addition here. He’s a veteran left-hander who’s had a lot of success and pitched in the American League East and I think he’s going to be a welcomed addition.

On trading for Happ despite poor recent performance:

It’s certainly something I was utilizing to the best of my abilities. Or at least I tried to in my negotiation tactics with Ross Atkins, but I think Ross Atkins at the same time recognized he had one of the better starters on the marketplace. He’s held firm the last few number of days in terms of what his ask was and it felt like a little bit of a staredown contest toward the end and finally I decided, being an experienced executive in this game and knowing I was a buyer, I usually approach things with, How would I feel if he wound up going in a different direction and then I wound up pivoting and continued looking for something I needed. J.A. Happ was someone we valued. The last number of days I’ve been trying to determine, would I be willing to pay this particular price and today was the day I decided to push through on it.

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