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Boston Red Sox to Bring Up James Paxton Next Week

'The Big Maple' will be making his Boston Red Sox debut next week, per reports. He did not pitch at all in 2022 after recovering from Tommy John surgery. His return brings about a ton of questions now for the Sox in the rotation.

Brady Farkas

Boston Red Sox to Bring Up James Paxton Next Week
Boston Red Sox to Bring Up James Paxton Next Week /
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The Boston Red Sox are calling up James Paxton next week, per reports.

'The Big Maple' will join the team in Atlanta when the Red Sox take on the Braves beginning Tuesday.

Tyler Milliken of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston tweets:

"James Paxton will be rejoining the Red Sox in Atlanta and is set to make his next start in the bigs, per @IanMBrowne. Yesterday, in his final rehab outing he tossed 5 IP and gave up 2 ER. Command was shaky, 5 BB and 4 K. 96 pitches, 56 of them for strikes. Big decisions… "

Those 'big decisions' likely refer to how the Red Sox handle the pitching staff moving forward. The Sox have Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck and Brayan Bello already in the rotation -- and they have Garrett Whitlock currently on the injured list.

Do the Red Sox send Bello to Triple-A to make room for Paxton? Do they bump someone to the bullpen to accommodate Paxton's return?

Paxton is a complete unknown for the Red Sox. When healthy, he's been an excellent pitcher. He's 57-33 in his career with the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees. He owns a lifetime 3.59 ERA and a 9.9 k/9. 

But his health is a major question mark. He's thrown just 21.2 innings in the last three years. He threw 20.1 innings in the 2020 season with the Yankees, then threw 1.1 innings in 2021 for the Mariners. He needed Tommy John surgery and then missed all of 2022 recovering from that and other ailments.

The Red Sox finish out a weekend series with the Phillies and then start the Braves series on Tuesday at 7:20 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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