LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers made their signing of free-agent left-hander James Paxton official, filling out a starting rotation that has been completely remade this winter.
The 35-year-old Paxton agreed to an $8 million salary for the 2024 season with a $3 million signing bonus and incentives that could add another $2 million to the total. Paxton can earn a $1 million bonus for being on the active Opening Day roster (unlikely given the two-game series in Korea a week before the rest of the schedule begins), $500,000 if he is on the active roster by April 15. Additional bonuses will pay him $250,000 each for 16 and 18 games started, $500,000 for 20 starts.
Paxton joins a starting group where he is the lone lefty among all right-handers – Tyler Glasnow, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan and Gavin Stone. Only the youngsters Miller, Sheehan and Stone made starts for the Dodgers last season.
With 156 career starts over 10 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Paxton is the most experienced pitcher in this year’s group. But he continues the Dodgers’ well-established willingness to take on pitchers with an injury history.
Paxton has made more than 20 starts just three times in those 10 seasons (2017-19). He threw a no-hitter for the Mariners in 2018 but finished the season on the injured list with a back injury. He eventually underwent surgery and made just five starts during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
He left his first start of the 2021 season with elbow discomfort and underwent Tommy John surgery which sidelined him until 2023.
He made two trips to the IL last season (for a hamstring injury and knee inflammation) but went 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA in 19 starts. Paxton didn’t finish well. After going 5-1 with a 2.73 ERA in 10 starts before the All-Star break (and winning an American League Pitcher of the Month award), Paxton was 2-4 with a 6.98 ERA in nine starts after the break before…
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