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The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired pitcher J.A. Happ from the Seattle Mariners for AAA pitcher Adrian Sampson.
Happ was selected in the 3rd round of the 2004 MLB Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies and made his debut in 2007. He has played for 4 teams in 9 seasons. He was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2009.
Happ will be replacing A.J. Burnett and joining Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano, and Jeff Locke in the Pirates rotation. Burnett was just placed on the disabled list with inflammation in his right elbow.
“Our scouts liked the stuff, and he’s a guy we actually liked for years and tried a couple of times to get,” Pirates general manager Huntington admitted. “We believe he’ll come in and help us. And if [Burnett gets well], we have six starters and a decision to make, it’ll be a good thing.”
The Pirates are 4.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central, but they have a firm hold on a Wild Card spot. They added third baseman Aramis Ramirez in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers to help them in their playoff run, as well as closer Joakim Soria from the Detroit Tigers.
All MLB trades are pending medical reviews.
Quotes and Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com.
