But they have a young roster, that figures to get younger next year when they replace Gardner with Frazier and probably add Sheffield to the rotation mix. It's not like they are AA's Jays in 2015 that were hanging on to their playoff window for dear life and needed to do something before an inevitable rebuild. The Yankees don't need to do anything desperate. They can risk the WC this year, keep their assets in case someone better becomes available in the winter, and go for the division for the next five years.
Look at the prospects he gave up for 2.5 years of Sonny Gray. Basically three prospects on the back end of the top 100 prospects list. In this case we are talking 2 months of Happ. He's probably offering Billy McKinney and some others he doesn't want to put on the 40 man at the end of the season.