James Paxton threw 96 innings with the Red Sox last season, marking his return to somewhat regular action after injuries limited him to 21 2/3 big league frames in 2020-21 and no innings at all in 2022. Paxton’s comeback year was then basically two seasons in one — the excellent 2.76 ERA he posted over his first 56 innings, followed by an ugly 6.98 ERA in his final 40 innings of work.
As Paxton tells Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, “I felt like I kind of reached a point where my body was just a little burned out. I didn’t have much left in the tank.” Paxton kept pushing since the Red Sox were still on the fringes of the playoff race, and struggled in particular once he was moved to a regular turn of four days’ rest between starts.
“Early in the season, I had a lot of extra rest, and then we went to a shorter leash. Coming off a surgery and that much time off, I wasn’t conditioned for that,” Paxton said. “If you start off going [every five days] your body gets accustomed to that, whereas if you go six all the time, that’s what your body gets accustomed to. We’re creatures of habit.”
Despite the rough finish to his season, Paxton still landed $7MM from the Dodgers on a one-year free agent contract, even if that $7MM total dropped from an initial $11MM guarantee due to some concerns the team had about his overall health. The 35-year-old lefty is hopeful that getting some innings under his belt last season will better help him manage the length of the 2024 campaign, plus L.A. will deploy “somewhat of a six-man rotation,” according to assistant pitching coach Connor McGuinness. The idea is to keep all of the Dodgers’ hurlers fresh and healthy, plus some other reinforcements in Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May could join the pitching mix after the middle of the season.
Whereas Paxton’s 2023 season was basically divided in two, Max Muncy’s year was a bit more of a roller-coaster before he finished a pretty typical year of production. The infielder hit .212/.333/.475 over 579 plate appearances while matching his career high of 36 home runs, translating to a 118 wRC+. Los Angeles was impressed enough to sign Muncy to a new contract extension, guaranteeing him $24MM through 2025 while also tacking a $10MM club option on his services for 2026.
Muncy’s recipe of homers, walks, low averages, and high strikeouts is pretty set, but as he enters his age-33 season, Muncy feels he has more to offer as a defensive player. He told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) that his offseason regiment included cutting 15 pounds and focusing more on flexibility training.
“It was just making sure my feet move a little bit more, and getting the knees healthy. Last year, I had a little trouble with just not staying down on the ball,” Muncy said. “I was coming up out of my fielding stance and everything. And when you’re doing that, it’s hard to read the hops and I kept putting myself in bad positions last year with bad hops….So the focus was just making sure that my feet stay moving. Just allowing myself to read the ball and make moves on it.”
There’s basically nowhere to go but up for Muncy defensively, as the public defensive metrics (-7 Outs Above Average, -3 Defensive Runs Saved, -14.8 UZR/150) were unanimously unimpressed with his third base glovework in 2023. The move to more or less a full-time third base role has come as the Dodgers have brought superstar talent into Muncy’s other positions — Shohei Ohtani is now locked in at DH, Freddie Freeman at first base, and Mookie Betts is now moving into everyday second base duty.
“I’ve been very open about how I want to stay here for the rest of my career….So if I want to play here, I need to make sure I’m in the field, and the best way to do that is just put myself in a good spot,” Muncy said.
In other Dodgers news, GM Brandon Gomes told Plunkett and other reporters that catching prospect Diego Cartaya has been dealing with a back problem but the “full expectation” is that Cartaya will be set for the start of the Double-A season. Back problems have bothered Cartaya in the past, and the last thing the catcher needs is an injury setback as he looks to bounce back from a difficult season. A top-20 prospect in the sport heading into the 2023 campaign, Cartaya hit only .189/.278/.379 over 403 PA at Double-A last season, dropping his stock as a potential catcher of the future.
Nick Frasso is another top-100 prospect looking at a lost year, as he was already expected to miss the 2024 season after undergoing shoulder surgery back in November. Gomes added that Frasso also had a “clean-up” surgery on his right hip labrum, though it doesn’t appear as though this second procedure will impact the right-hander’s timeline. If all goes well, Gomes thinks Frasso will be able to pitch in the Arizona Fall League.
A SP burnt out after 96 IP? What’s in the water in BOS?
Or Ny .or Seattle…Paxton has been injured on and off his entire career..not just Boston this is just what he is…back of the baseball card doesnt lie.
Chris Sale also drinking that NYY/SEA water? Now up to 9K in 4.2 IP (2 GS) so far — even better K-rate than Strider.
Sale’s stuff is still MLB quality, even if off his peak; his health is not.
Run dmc..first its spring traing…second.Look at sales baseball card hes got one of the best K rates in history.no offense to strider but he has a long way to go to be in the sale conversation of great careers..and.are you really trying to compare Sale to Paxton..in any regard??..come on dude..even for a troll thats pretty weak
Comping 2023’s K-leader (by far) and MLB leader since he became SP is fair as a frame of reference for how he’s looked in 2 little, whittle spring training games. Not much to care about, but it’s March and we’re grasping at straws. That being said, it also falls in line with what he did post-injury 2023 and his career, so not an anomaly.
Still…a SP burned out after 96 IP seems far fetched. Just sayin’ probably has nothing to do with BOS, but I’m still not drinking their water.
If you watched Paxton’s last few starts he was gassed long before he got to 90 innings. Too much time missed the past few seasons. We’ll see if he can get to 100 innings this year before his arm falls off
That having been said, what’s in the water in this country? A guy pitched 5 or 6 innings every 5-6 days and he’s a “workhorse” and an “innings eater”? Nobody’s pitched 250 innings since Justin Verlander 13 years ago and I doubt anyone ever will again.
They love that dirty water.
I expect Cartaya and Frasso to bounce back over the next couple years. Lots of talent there.
3 of the Dodgers top 5 prospects are catchers…..I’d bet Cartaya gets traded for a shortstop or an arm at some point.
If Cartaya gets off to a good start, I could easily see him being dealt.
Done Javier Baez is yours!
@Bobby
Why would the Dodgers trade him at his low value point? Please don’t be a stock trader.
What are you talking about? No one said to trade him at his “low value point”, whatever that means. I just said I bet he gets traded because he’s not taking Smith’s job and the Dodgers have a ton of young catching.
In true Dodgers fashion, expect Paxton to have close to a career year in the 2024 regular season followed by an implosion in the playoffs.
Are you saying the Dodgeradoos are going to emit some low notes?
Relying on the example of Noah Syndergaard?
Trea would still be a Dodger if they sweetened the deal enough for him to stay. Shame they lost him
They probably could’ve kept Corey Seager if they really wanted to.
True, but the behemoth contract TEX has to foot for many years to come helps take the sting out of it.
Texas won their first ever World Series in large part thanks to Seager, and they look like one of the top teams in baseball for at least the next several seasons. I highly doubt they are regretting the decision to give him that contract.
Dodgers made Seager a very credible offer that he turned down.
Corey had made it known he wanted to move to a team where he would be the lead star, closer to his off season home.
If Seager stays in LA Freddie doesn’t get signed. ♀️
I don’t think Texas has any complaints about the deal. I think it mostly worked out the best for everyone.
Muncy is the team’s defensive weak link for sure, but this was also the case when he first started playing 2B. He worked at it and did get better. So there’s hope.
Paxton is a total crapshoot but it seems his job is only holding down a spot in the rotation until midseason.
I would argue that Lux’s defense is the weakest link, teaming up with Muncy to create the biggest area of defensive concern. Not to mention those guys’ roles in controlling the running game…
I think we will see a lot of late game defensive replacements on the left side of the infield. Few 3B/SS combos in the ML B will offer the same offensive production as this duo, and none approaching this price.
We’ll see. It’s been years since Lux has played the position enough to make much of a judgement.
“his offseason regiment included cutting 15 pounds…”
REGIMEN, not regiment!
Maybe he joined the National Guard over the postseason. Did you ever that of that?
Max Muncy’s 2024 brought to you by Ozempic.
Paxton should be one of those guys that look to sign for the 2nd half.
Dodger Blue is going to “somewhat of a six man rotation”. Smart and logical but not because to keep pitchers “fresh and healthy” in 2024. IMO, it is to accommodate Ohtani once back from TJ injury recovery. Big risk here. In effect, the Dodgers are rolling out a new rotation system. Wise to start this now and not wait until Ohtani is back on the mound. And if they’re doing it at the big league level, logical to implement this strategy throughout their minor league system as well so to acclimate all SP candidates.
It also works out for Yoshi now as well
Paxton has been robbing franchises for years. Big Maple?? Big thief!
With Nick Frasso definitely going to 60 days IL, who will take his roster spot? Daniel Hudson or TJ McFarland?