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After Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ threw 3.1 scoreless innings against the visiting New York Yankees on Sunday he was prodded by reporters asking his feelings on his current situation with the team.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said “I told myself a couple things before I came into camp — that I would try to stay as positive as I could and let things play out. So I’m trying to do that.”

Happ has been put in the unenviable position of being designated the club’s sixth starter with the off-season starting pitching acquisitions of R.A. Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle.

The left-hander, who has spent the bulk of his six major-league seasons as a starter but is pegged for either Triple-A Buffalo’s rotation or the Jays’ bullpen as a long reliever.

But Happ is obviously unhappy with his current position and he may not have said the words say, he suggested he is looking for an opportunity to start elsewhere.

“I know there’s other people in the stands as well, so I’m just trying to just keep my routine and we’ll see what happens.”

When asked directly whether he would prefer to be in the Jays’ bullpen or Buffalo’s rotation, Happ said: “I’m a major-league starting pitcher. I guess I’ll leave it at that for right now.”

Happ was acquired midway through last season from the Houston Astros to help bolster the Jays’ injury-riddled starting rotation. He has performed much better as a starter than as a reliever in his career and is due to become a free agent in 2015.

He said he expects to have “another conversation” with Jays brass within the next 10 days, but would not elaborate as to what he hoped would come out of the discussion.

“I definitely feel for him,” said Jays manager John Gibbons. “He’s a competitor, it’s his career. He deserves a shot at (starting), but that’s not going to happen right now, barring something.”

Gibbons said that by the end of the year “he’ll probably be laughing and we’ll have forgotten all about this.”

There always is the possibility of a trade if Happ forces the Jays hand and refuses to play nice, but hopefully for all involved this will just be a minor bump in the road.

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