James Paxton traded to the New York Yankees

On a per-inning basis, James Paxton is a hoss. His 32.3% strikeout rate would have been 4th-best among starters in the MLB last year (a hair ahead of Jacob deGrom’s 32.2% mark) had he qualified. The trouble is, he doesn’t throw a ton of innings. Last year’s 160 ¹⁄₃ was a career-high, but the New York Yankees didn’t seem to mind much. Here are the particulars:

The other two prospects were OF Don Thompson-Williams and RHP Erik Swanson. So the lefty-throwing Sheffield is the prospect of note.

Here is what awaits Paxton in the AL East:

You have to think the man allows a few more home runs this year. Still, the team context is epic and hardly anyone is throwing 200+ innings anymore. In real life, it’s hard to tell which side “won.” We don’t know how the prospects are going to pan out, after all. For now let’s give the Mariners credit for igniting their rebuild with three Yankees prospects...and let’s give the Yankees credit for shoring up starting pitching instead of chasing the shiny new toys named Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Here’s one last tweet for the road:

I’m not even close to a Yankees fan, but the idea of them adding Paxton AND Corbin is exciting. We shall see!