With a personnel crunch looming on their 40-man roster and in their starting rotation, the Dodgers shook up their pitching staff Monday afternoon.
The team announced it designated veteran starter James Paxton for assignment.
A 35-year-old left-hander who signed a one-year contract with the Dodgers in the offseason, Paxton had given the team’s short-handed rotation important innings over the first half of the season, going 8-2 in 18 starts.
But with a diminished fastball and inconsistent command, his production often fluctuated, reflected in a 4.43 ERA and NL-leading 48 walks.
Paxton’s last start, a five-plus-inning, three-run effort against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, was one of his better performances, highlighted by an uptick in velocity and seven strikeouts.
After the game, he seemed encouraged by the performance, hopeful his up-and-down season had finally turned a corner.
“I was just kind of attacking the zone with everything I had,” Paxton said after getting up to 96 mph with his fastball. “The velo kind of came out of nowhere, so that was nice.”
By Monday, however, Paxton’s Dodgers tenure had all but certainly come to an end.
“It was tough,” manager Dave Roberts said of his Monday morning conversation with Paxton. “James is an absolute pro. I was very fortunate, we were all fortunate, to have him don the Dodgers uniform. It’s one of those decisions that are very difficult, trying to understand the guys that we have coming back, the guys that we want to get looks at.”
The team was in need of 40-man roster spots, with rookie River Ryan starting Monday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants and veteran Clayton Kershaw expected to be activated later this week.
Club officials knew the returns of Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller wouldn’t be far behind, with both getting midseason resets (Buehler on the injured list; Miller by being optioned to triple A) after bumpy starts to the year.
Also, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is still expected to return later this season — rounding out a wave of forthcoming reinforcements that probably would have pushed Paxton out of the rotation.
Rather than wait until then, and potentially lose Paxton for nothing, the Dodgers sensed an opportunity.
“If we didn’t see James being part of the stretch run,” general manager Brandon Gomes said, “now would be the best time to see if there’s interest there.”
The team will have seven days to find a trade for Paxton before he goes on waivers. And given the number of rival clubs in need of pitching help before next Tuesday’s trade deadline, the Dodgers are expecting to find suitors willing to give something up for the 11-year veteran (who reached the last performance bonus in his contract Sunday by making his 18th start, maxing out the deal at its full potential value of $13 million).
“It is tough,” Roberts said of the decision to part ways with a healthy starter from an injury-ravaged rotation, “but I think that having River here, [Justin] Wrobleski, Landon [Knack], obviously Clayton coming back, Tyler [Glasnow] coming back, we feel good about where the starting staff is at going forward.”
The risk, of course, is that the Dodgers are sacrificing the potential depth Paxton could provide later this season in the event their staff is ravaged by more injuries.
To this point, they’ve needed Paxton to help carry a rotation that at times has featured three or four rookies.
In the end, however, the club was confident enough in its numerous arms on the mend to try to recoup something for Paxton before next Tuesday’s trade deadline.
His season might still be turning a corner. He might still make important starts for a playoff-contending team. After Monday‘s decision, however, Paxton will have to wait and see where, as the Dodgers start the clock to try to flip him somewhere else.
Staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this report.