White Sox: Minnesota Twins adding J.A. Happ is great news
In 2020, the Chicago White Sox were dominant against left-handed pitching. They didn’t lose a single game to a left-handed starter in 2020 so it is always nice to see them on the opponent’s mound to start a game. Well, the Minnesota Twins are one of the teams that the White Sox will battle with the most in 2021 as they are one of the division rivals.
They are also the rival most likely to make winning the division difficult for the White Sox. They are a good team but their J.A. Happ addition (one year deal) is good news for the White Sox. They clobbered lefties in 2020 and are likely to do so again. Over a 162 game season, it is probably unlikely that they will go undefeated against the lefties again but they should have a very good record.
The Chicago White Sox should find a fair amount of success against J.A. Happ.
Happ is 38 years old and has been in the MLB for parts of 14 seasons. He spent time with the Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Seattle Mariners before spending the last three years with the New York Yankees. Ahead of his time with New York, he was never a superstar pitcher but he was certainly a decent middle of the rotation guy. He is a World Series champion, a former one-time All-Star, and has finished in sixth place for the Cy Young Award one time.
With New York, he had a decent time. He wasn’t amazing every year as his 2019 season was awful. He was, however, pretty good in 2020. He did deal with some controversy over his starts and seeing some of them skipped but it doesn’t take away from the fact that when he did pitch, he was okay. Yankees fans, however, are mostly happy that he is gone.
Now, he goes to the Twins who might still believe that they can win the A.L. Central but the White Sox will have something to say about that. It is hard to guess how he will pitch against everyone else but this White Sox lineup is going to be a nightmare for him. It is a nightmare for a lot of pitchers but the left-handed 38-year-old might have an even tougher time.
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It is an exciting time to be a White Sox fan. They have improved their already elite team and now their biggest fork in the road has been weakened. Going from Jake Odorizzi to J.A. Happ will certainly benefit their opponents. The difference between their other opponents and the White Sox is that starting lineup. With all of those dominant right-handed bats ready to go, seeing the Twins add this guy is very good news for the Chicago White Sox.