Timing of Dodgers' James Paxton trade paid off in devastating fashion

By the time the Dodgers designated James Paxton for assignment on July 22, he had sort of shockingly been LA's most dependable starter through the first half of the season. Despite the fact that the Dodgers reworked his contract almost immediately after signing him due to injury concerns, he'd faithfully made 18 starts to cash the bonuses written into that revised deal.

He was dependable but not necessarily good, sporting a 4.43 ERA during his time in LA, and pitched one too many close call starts for the Dodgers to keep him around through the end of the season. It was pretty clear from the beginning that he wouldn't clear waivers and go to Triple-A, as there were plenty of teams who needed a workhorse starter at the time. Sure enough, the Dodgers traded him to the Red Sox on July 26, and he returned to Boston after less than a year away.

The Dodgers called up top prospect River Ryan in Paxton's stead, who almost immediately shook out to be a better backend starter for LA. Although Ryan just went down with a UCL strain on Saturday, the Red Sox received almost concurrent bad news on Paxton the very next day.

He threw just five pitches on Sunday against the Astros before trying to cover first on a ground ball and going down onto one knee when he returned to the mound.

Red Sox get bad news on former Dodgers lefty James Paxton on Sunday

Paxton said of the injury, "I felt like I got kicked in the calf. Then, I kind of turned around, took another step and I felt it again. I was like: 'It's not good. It's my calf.' I felt it pop." Yikes.

The last few years of Paxton's career have been marred by injury. In 2023, he only pitched 96 innings for Boston after starting the season on the IL with a hamstring strain, then going onto the 15-day in September with knee inflammation. In 2021, he pitched just 1 1/3 innings for the Mariners before the team announced that he would need to undergo Tommy John surgery, which kept him out for all of 2022.

When Paxton spoke on the contract restructure with the Dodgers, he said that the chief concern was "just my body," which didn't exactly inspire confidence in fans at the time. It still seems a bit miraculous that he made it through 18 starts for the team without injury hiccups, but the Red Sox haven't gotten so lucky. The Dodgers are likely relieved they made that trade when they did.