The New York Yankees came up short trying to acquire pitching help at the trade deadline last season, and that put pressure on James Paxton to shake off a rough stretch in midseason. He went through a period where the Yankees lost all six of his starts. In one game at Fenway Park, he gave up seven runs in four innings. The Yankees expected more from Paxton because the Yankees had won six of his first eight starts. Paxton did get past his rough stretch when he finished with a team-leading eleven consecutive wins.
Paxton, born James Alston is thirty-one years old, he is Canadian that previously played for the Seattle Mariners. He played college ball for the Kentucky Wildcats. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB draft by the Mariners and made his MLB debut for them in 2013. On May 8, 2018, Paxton pitched a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the first Canadian Major League pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Canada. Following the 2018 season, Paxton was traded to the New York
Yankees.
Previous to attending the University of Kentucky, he went to secondary school in Ladner British Columbia, where he played for the Canadian Premier League, followed by Team Canada at the Junior level. In his Junior year, he had 10 wins and an ERA of 1.51. After starting his Senior year injured, he went on to a 7-1 record. While at the University of Kentucky, he pitched a complete game shut out over Ole Miss. While in college, he was named the fifth-best pitcher in school history. He was selected in the draft by the Blue Jays, but he didn’t sign as he wanted to complete his senior year at Kentucky and ended up signing with Seattle.
While pitching for Seattle, In the Pacific Coast League, he was promoted to the majors in September of 2013. In his first game, he beat the Tampa Bay Rays and finished the short season 3-0 in four starts. In 2014 he had only thirteen starts due to the extended time of the DL. 2015 would end up the same with continued injuries. 2016 found Pax back in AAA, but an injury to Felix Hernandez got him called back up. In 2017 he won his first three games with an ERA of 0.00. In mid-April, he was named AL player of the week when he had two more wins that were scoreless. But then he was found back of the DL with a sore arm. In July, he was 6-0, but in August, he was back on the DL.
In 2018, before his start against the Minnesota Twins, Paxton gained national media attention when a bald eagle, which had been participating in a patriotic pre-game ceremony, flew around and landed on Paxton. Paxton, who reacted unusually calmly, later stated, “No, I wasn’t going to run. I figured I’m not going to outrun an eagle, so I might as well see what happens.” On May 2, 2018, against the Oakland Athletics, Paxton struck out a career-high 16 batters, and then on May 18th, he threw his no-hitter.
On November 19, 2018, James Paxton was traded to the New York Yankees. In April, he became the second only to David Cone to strike out 12 batters in two consecutive starts. After winning six of eight starts at the beginning of the season, the Yankees lost six of his starts. He gave up the long ball and failed to go deep into games. His best outing of the year was on July 16 against the Red Sox (8.1 IP, 0 R, 12 K). After his slow patch, he went on to allow the Yankees to win all eleven of his final starts in the regular season and become the Yankees best pitcher who helped the Yankees win 103 games on the season.
During the postseason, the New York Yankees won his ALDS start against the Minnesota Twins. In his start against the Astros in the ALCS, he pitched a gem. Paxton went 8 1/3 innings allowing only one run in the Yankee Game five win. At the end of the season, Paxton would become the Yankee franchise all-time leader with 11.11 strikeouts per nine innings, surpassing Luis Severino’s 2017 title. Paxton is a popular Yankee and is nicknamed the “Big Maple” for his Canadian homeland.
Paxton is an ace type pitcher when healthy; he has had reoccurring problems with knee pain, which he says is now not a problem. Paxton has pitched very well in both spring training and summer camp. The Yankees will look for him to continue his winning ways in tonight’s second game of the season against the Washington Nationals and it’s co-ace, Stephen Strasburg.