The Los Angeles Dodgers signed pitcher James Paxton to a one-year, $11 million contract. The veteran left-handed pitcher bounced back in the 2023 Major League Baseball season, finishing with a 7-5 record in 19 starts for the Boston Red Sox.
Before that season, he played only six games from 2020 to 2022. In 2020, he was limited to five games for the New York Yankees after undergoing a microscopic lumbar discectomy to remove a peridiscal cyst. A year later, he underwent Tommy John surgery while under contract with the Seattle Mariners. He did not pitch during the 2022 season as part of his continuous recovery from surgery.
The Dodgers add a veteran arm pic.twitter.com/rC3FvxrdrA
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) January 23, 2024
Except for those seasons, Paxton has been durable throughout his MLB career. He had a stretch of starting at least 20 games from 2016 to 2019. Paxton had his best season in 2019 with a 15-6 record from a career-high 29 starts.
The year before, he became the first Canadian pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Canada, helping the Mariners win against the Toronto Blue Jays. That feat made him the first Mariners pitcher to complete a no-hitter in a road game.
Paxton has a 64-38 record in 156 starts and 850.2 innings. He has a career 3.69 earned run average and 932 strikeouts. His addition gives the Dodgers more depth to their pitching rotation after adding Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.
However, Glasnow still has health concerns after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022. Meanwhile, Yamamoto must adjust to a five-person starting rotation in MLB, unlike the six-man rotation in Nippon Professional Baseball.
It’s still uncertain if the Dodgers will have Clayton Kershaw back after shoulder surgery. Meanwhile, two-time American League Most Valuable Player Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch in 2024 after elbow surgery in 2023.
Aside from Paxton, the Dodgers added Manuel Margot and Teoscar Hernandez this offseason.
-Lance Fernandez