Without Eduardo Rodriguez, who departed to the Detroit Tigers, their rotation is missing a high-upside lefty stopper.
If this isn’t their last attempt to patch up the rotation, then Boston fans will be fine to keep bragging .
Coming off Tommy John surgery , Paxton will likely not pitch at all until the tail end of the season.
Therefore, there’s an extremely likely scenario where Paxton doesn’t pitch at all until his club option must be picked up, at which point the Sox will have to decide whether they’d like to further reward a pitcher entering his “rehab year” of erratic command and regained velocity on the fly.
Left-hander James Paxton and the Boston Red Sox are in agreement on a one-year, $10 million contract with a two-year club option, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN.
However … there’s something in Paxton’s genetics or motion that seemingly leads to an inevitable breakdown, in many different and unrelated manners.
Before the 2020 season, Paxton had a cyst removed from his back that delayed his arrival in his second season with the Bombers.
In the best-case scenario, Paxton is a short-term weapon down the stretch for the 2022 Red Sox, leading to him being brought back for a fully-healthy season on a 2023 discount.
Even in that best-case scenario, though, Bloom out-spent the competition to almost certainly not fill his major, lefty-sized rotation hole in 2021.