Happ, who began the season in the bullpen before moving into the rotation on May 23, had made it clear he wanted to remain a starter. He said he felt relieved by the news, but otherwise downplayed it. He didn't say how he found out, only that he did so through the grapevine.
"It's good," Happ said. "I don't know what the situation is going to be, so I'd rather not comment too much until something happens."
Asked if he believed he earned it, Happ said, "Yeah, but that's only my opinion."
With Happ's role settled, the club still faces a difficult decision on the fifth starter. Will it be Martinez or Jamie Moyer?
Amaro said that the decision had yet to be made, adding that the possibility remained that the team would go with a six-man rotation. But with three scheduled days off this month, a six-man rotation doesn't seem practical until September, when the Phils are scheduled to play 30 games in 30 days, including two makeup games.
For the most part, starters are geared to pitch every five days, and too much time off between starts could negatively affect their performance.
"Going with a six-man rotation is not out of the realm of possibility," Amaro said. "There are a lot of permutations. We haven't discussed it yet. You never know what's going to happen in the next week to 10 days. A guy can go down."
The Phillies will have six starting pitchers when Martinez is activated, which will be any day now. Even though Happ is 8-2 with a 2.74 earned run average, which ranks sixth in the National League, his success out of the bullpen earlier in the season, along with a rash of injuries to the relief corps, made him a more likely candidate than Martinez or Moyer to be a reliever.
