LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers’ biggest area of need as the trade deadline approaches remains starting pitching. But they decided they don’t need James Paxton anymore.
The veteran reliever was designated for assignment on Monday, clearing a spot on the 40-man roster and the active roster for right-hander River Ryan who will make his big-league debut against the San Francisco Giants on Monday night.
Ryan will become the sixth rookie to start a game for the Dodgers this season.
Paxton is tied for the team lead with 18 starts and is third on the team with 89⅓ innings pitched. But he was signed to eat innings during the regular season – which he did only moderately, averaging less than five innings per start – and did not figure into the Dodgers’ October plans.
Instead, a number of starting pitchers are expected back in the weeks ahead and the innings will be needed for those pitchers – Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto – to prepare for the postseason or compete for a role on that October staff.
The Dodgers have seven days to waive, trade or release Paxton. With a number of playoff contenders in need of starting pitching (including the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros, prominently) and a thin trade market, the Dodgers could find a landing spot for Paxton that would bring back some minor return.
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Signed to a one-year contract as a free agent last winter, that contract was reworked after the results of the 35-year-old Paxton’s physical exam. The reworked deal paid Paxton a $3 million signing bonus with a $4 million base salary and $13 million in potential bonuses. By waiting until his 18th start of the season on Sunday before cutting him loose, the Dodgers allowed most of those bonuses to kick in.
Paxton had been one of just two Dodgers – along with Gavin Stone – to not miss a turn through the rotation, and he went 8-2 with a 4.43 ERA and some troubling internal numbers. He led the National League with 48 walks, which inflated his WHIP to 1.46. After Tommy John surgery in 2021, back and knee issues at various points in his career, Paxton’s velocity dipped this year from a career average of 95 mph to 93 mph. Unable to get a feel for his cutter, he all but dropped the pitch from his repertoire. The result of all that was a career-low 6.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
More to come on this story.
