The Red Sox are declining their two-year, $26MM team option on left-hander James Paxton, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told reporters (including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe). The southpaw will now have to decide whether to trigger a $4MM player option to return to Boston or if he wishes to test the open market.
This was a no-brainer for the Red Sox, as the 6’4″ hurler missed the entire 2022 season. Paxton blew out his elbow during his first start of the 2021 season with the Mariners, requiring Tommy John surgery. That cost him the rest of the year, but the Sox signed him to a complex $10MM guarantee last winter. The deal paid him $6MM for this past season and guaranteed him the option to lock in a $4MM salary for next year if Boston didn’t trigger a pair of $13MM club options covering the 2023-24 campaigns.
It was a high-risk, high-upside dice roll for the Red Sox that hasn’t panned out. Boston had hoped Paxton would be able to return late in the season and contribute to a possible playoff push, but he suffered a Grade 2 lat tear while rehabbing and didn’t wind up throwing a big league pitch. With all of 1 1/3 innings pitched over the past two seasons, there was no chance the Red Sox would commit an additional $26MM on a bounceback.
Paxton’s now left with an interesting decision. He may be hard-pressed to find a $4MM base salary on the open market after two essentially lost seasons, but it’s possible he declines the option in search of an incentive-laden deal. Even if the 34-year-old doesn’t find an offer that quite matches the $4MM guarantee he’d be foregoing, he could seek out a deal that contains additional bonuses based on his number of innings pitched or starts in 2023 if he’s confident he’ll be healthy by Spring Training.
The southpaw will now have to decide whether to trigger a $4MM player to return to Boston or if he wishes to test the open market.
I don’t get it…I thought they declined his option?
It’s an unusual version of a mutual option, one that I think will become more common. Instead of just one of the parties being able to opt out, there is in essence two options, one player and one team, at different prices. The team turned down their option, which is of course higher. Now the player decides whether to opt into the lower option. If no, he’s a free agent.
Seamaholic, appreciate you breaking it down.
Seamaholic for staff writer.
There was a team option and a player option.
The Red Sox declined the two years $26 million ($13 per) club option.
The contract also contains a $4m player option
The Red Sox held a 2/26 club option that they could exercise, when they declined it, it turned into a 1/4 player option that Paxton could trigger. Essentially the Red Sox were hedging their bets that if Paxton became healthy and excelled, they could have him on an affordable contract and Paxton bet that if he was unable to pitch or faltered, he’d have a guaranteed paycheck
yeah well wonderboy Bloom blew this one. signing Paxton who pitched ZERO innings in 2022 that put the Sox OVER the cap and lowered the compensation if Xander leaves to a comp pick after the FOURTH rd.. Way to go Chaim
I wrote elsewhere that the Renfroe trade put them over. Truthfully, it was the mixed message sent at the deadline that kept them over. They thought they could stay in the playoff race and got burned. I might have done the same thing then. In retrospect had they traded JDM, they would have ended the season under the first threshold. They do have the ability though to offer him the QO to keep him for at least one more season. This will be an interesting off season for many clubs.
The Sox had a 2 year $26m option to keep him for ‘23 and ‘24 which they declined. Now Paxton has an option to play for $4m or go to free agency.
Paxton should take the money, continue to rehab, and bet on himself. For he is now not locked in until 2024, and if he does well he could get more than any contract that starts with a base and incentives as a make good for this year. If he had shown he had rehabbed and pitches in 2022, things might have been different.
Hope he gets a spring training invite good player.
wind – He’s not gonna go for a ST invite. He will have a guaranteed contract from some team.
Don’t be surprised if he still re-signs with Boston even if he turns down the player option. They could guarantee him a $3M base salary with some incentives for either IP or games started such as: 90IP (18 games) 100IP (20 games) 110IP (22 games), 120 (24 games), etc. The contract could max out as high as $15M?, but that would require at least 160 IP out of Paxton or 30 games started. He is older and coming off a major injury, but if he’s healthy, he could certainly provide better results than re-signing Rich Hill would bring back to Boston. If he can’t stay healthy, $3M isn’t too much money to risk.
The team had a two year option on him, the 4 million to return is a player option which im thinking at this point might be mise for Paxton to trigger comimg off two completely lost years? And I do hope contracts like this become more popular in the future
What a weird signing.
Take the money, don’t look back, and keep smiling Pax.
Another stupid deal by Bloom. Total waste of resources.
Hello Newman – You do realize that if he takes the $4,000,000, he is the Red Sox pitcher from now until the end of the season in 2023! That means rehab and playing in games in the minors until/if he is good enough for the MLB. So post should read “take the money, and enjoy the time in Worcester, Mass”.
Whatever he chooses is gravy. Because he just completely fleeced the smartest man in that room.
Not many, who are coming back from the last few years as Paxton, are going to complain about that “enjoying” $4m minimum problem- in or not in -Wherever, Massachusetts.
What is going on with this?
Easy decline on the team’s part. Should also be an easy acceptance on Paxton’s part
I’m thinking he can get more incentives in a deal to make more than 4 mil
Agreed. It’s not a given he opts in. Paxton has made $44M through his career. I can see a team offering a $2.0-2.5M base with incentives potentially making it an 8-figure salary.
But there’s no way this guy stays healthy enough to achieve any incentives. He should just take the guaranteed $4M.
manfraud – There are people here who as recently as last month actually believed the Sox would pick up the two option years.
SMH …
As Sox fan I hope he opts in. He’s worth a $4m gamble. I could see them using him as a reliever to limit his innings and injury risk.
Dombrowski > Bloom
Hard to disagree with that one after 2022.
Let’s see after 2023. I’m not sold on Bloom but not giving up either.
Really. From what I can see he’s only done exactly the same as Bloom so far in Philly. Bloom built a team that went on a decent playoff run in Boston his second year there. DD did the same thing in Philly. What happens for him in year 3 remains to be seen.
Dombrowski got us 2018…
pwndroia – That’s exactly right. Dombrowski also got us 3 division champions and 3 playoff teams in just 4 years.
Bloom has gotten us one Wild Card and two horrific last place finishes in three years.
I’m afraid though Henry will give Bloom 2 more years to prove himself, even though he deserves only one more chance.
I agree, I would only give him one more chance.
Shouldn’t we say that Epstein, Cherrington and Dombrowski built the 2018 Red Sox? Also, shouldn’t we say that Klentak and Dombrowski (and maybe Reuben Amaro Jr.) built the 2022 Phillies?
DD still takes credit. He got us Sale and Price.
They all get some credit for 2018. For example, Epstein drafted Mookie, JBJ and Barnes and Cherrington drafted Benintendi.
Gentlemen;
Dombrowski is constantly being blamed for the mess with the payroll and the weak farm system. But none of those major signings or trades gets done without approval from ownership. There had to be another reason he was fired.
The funny thing is – DD might have been the best FO head in MLB to right that ship had he stayed on. It’s been 3 seasons. Have to think that the Sox Baseball Ops division would be further ahead then it is now had he stayed. Not that Bloom is so bad, but DD is that good.
Bloom is a mystery. He makes deals that don’t make him look good or bad, just very neutral.
“But here’s the deal: the reasons the Red Sox hired Dombrowski no longer existed. What they need now, at least in the vision of owner John Henry, is a process-oriented architect who can steer the franchise efficiently through a difficult transition toward its next championship team. That person was not the 63-year-old Dombrowski.
“Dave was the kind of guy who didn’t have much a process,” said one source familiar with the team’s thinking. “He is very good at making decisions right now based on instincts and advice. John likes a more process-oriented approach. And based on where the team is right now–the next couple of years could be rough–they don’t trust him to make those decisions.”
“The next Boston president/general manager is going to have to sell Henry on a detail-oriented plan of how to retool the team.”
cbssports.com/mlb/news/why-did-the-red-sox-cut-tie…
DD wins, the heck with the methodology.
Bag of rocks > Bloom
Would be nice to have Paxton at a cheaper value.
Easy opt out for Paxson he can sign a 1/$4 with a team like San Diego with incentives $2mil for 15starts.. $2 more for 25 starts.. in essence getting upside 1/$8mil of he stays healthy and is effective
The problem though is you can’t count on him going every 5th day, he’s only thrown like 20 innings over the last 3 years.
If you’re a team like San Diego that expects to be in the playoffs and you need to fill your 4th and 5th slots in your rotation, I don’t think you want to take the risk of having a guy who you may not get many innings out of, even if you’re hedging your bet financially by tying his compensation to starts.
To me it seems like a risk a team like the Nationals or A’s takes and if he plays well you flip him at the deadline next year. If he doesn’t suit up, then you don’t pay him much and it doesn’t impact your season much since you’re not competing anyways.
Another bullseye for Chaim Bloom. He might as well as taken the millions of dollars and thrown them in the air. He might have gotten a better return. The problem with Bloom is that he thinks the cheap possible high reward is the way to go on these players.
I hope Pax has something left to offer in the tank. Pitching for the Mariners I remember when the eagle landed on him at Rogers Centre and then he threw a no-hitter. Big Maple, when healthy, is somewhere between a #1 and #2 starter. Not quite an Ace, but an Ace-B, or something.
The eagle landed on him in Minnesota. The no hitter was in Toronto. His next start, which was back home in Seattle, he threw a complete game against the Tigers. 2018 was an insane year for Paxton.
That eagle landing was one of the best things I’ve ever seen on a baseball field.
Would love to see him take the 4 mil option to be a depth piece.
Rotation should look like this imo.
1) Rodon
2) Sale
3) Eovaldi
4) Bello
5) Whitlock/Paxton
Pivetta should be gone
Mata ready when needed in AAA
IMO. I’m bringing back Wacha and letting Eovaldi walk.
Pivetta is not going anywhere. He is a poor man’s Aaron Nola. When he’s going good, he has #2 starter stuff, but over the entire year he averages out to be a solid #4 or #5 starter for 20+ MLB teams. The Sox will accept his arbitration figure and lock him up for 2023.
I’m not sure Boston brings back Eovaldi though. I love what Nate has given this team over the last 4 years but he’s getting older and I have a feeling that another desperate team is going to overpay for his services (like Texas). Bring in Rondon!
I don’t care how deep the mariners pitching is…. Big maple needs to be in Seattle. Depth is important and so are old friends. He could really be a monster in the sixth inning etc.
I think he may be best suited for the bullpen. Wouldn’t mind the M’s taking a flyer on him in case Boyd decides to he wants to become a starter again.
“Big Maple” is such a talented pitcher, but his career injury list overshadows his talent so far. Perhaps, it is beyond bad luck. Pax, please look into changing your stretching routine. A call to Ichiro may help.
Big Maple is done. He was done 3 years ago and called so at the time.
Kudos to his agent for getting him a job . How they keep tricking clubs to get money for him.
What a stupid deal