New York Yankees: James Paxton trade will come back to haunt the Yankees

In case you haven’t heard yet the New York Yankees started off the MLB silly season by trading for Seattle Mariners lefty, James Paxton. However, what the Yankees gave up in order to get the ‘Big Maple’ is controversial.

The New York Yankees officially got a starting pitcher and have bolstered their rotation by getting James Paxton.

To get him, the Yankees had to give up their top prospect, Justus Sheffield.

Sheffield is someone who has arguably the most potential out of any Major League prospect, and the Yankees just gave him away.

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Sheffield is someone who can either come out of the bullpen or be a starter and dazzle in either role.

Giving Sheffield away is one thing, but with the amount of pitchers who are reportedly available the Yankees could have gotten a much bigger return on their investment.

The Indians have said on multiple occasions that everyone except Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez are available to trade.

This would then mean that Corey Kluber is available who is a Cy Young award winner, and finished third in Cy Young voting in 2018.

If he is available, why wouldn’t the Yankees go after him with a similar package to that of what they gave to the Mariners?

Justus Sheffield has some legit potential and the Indians would jump all over him if they had the chance to bring him back to Cleveland.

Sheffield started out in Cleveland but was then traded to the Yankees alongside Clint Frazier in exchange for reliever Andrew Miller back in 2016.

This being said, the Indians know the kind of potential Sheffield has and they would more than likely jump on the same package the Yankees gave to the Mariners in exchange for Paxton.

To show you just how much better Kluber was than Paxton in 2018, lets take a look at their stats:

James Paxton: 11-6, 3.76 ERA, 160.1 Innings Pitched, 208 Strikeouts, 1.098 WHIP, 2.9 WAR

Corey Kluber: 20-7, 2.89 ERA, 215.0 Innings Pitched, 222 Strikeouts, 0.991 WHIP, 5.8 WAR

Kluber bests Paxton in quite literally every stat with the exception of losses.

However, I’ll take nine more wins and one more loss over nine less wins and one loss, any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Now, I’m not saying Paxton is bad my any means, but what I am saying is they could’ve gotten a lot more return on their investment elsewhere had they gone after Kluber or even Noah Syndegaard.

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Here is to hoping Paxton helps us make a run at the World Series this year, but this trade will come back to haunt the Yanks in the near future.

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