Former Mariners pitcher James Paxton will retire after season

Sep 11, 2024, 4:21 PM | Updated: 4:21 pm

James Paxton of the Seattle Mariners waves to fans before a 2021 game against Kansas City. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

BY BRENT STECKER

Editor, Seattle Sports

One of the best pitchers in Seattle Mariners history is calling it a career. Say goodbye to “The Big Maple.”

In an interview released Wednesday, veteran left-hander James Paxton told the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast that he will retire after the 2024 season.

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The 35-year-old Paxton is currently with the Red Sox, having gone to Boston in a midseason trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it’s likely he has thrown his last pitch in the big leagues. Paxton is on the 60-day injured list with a partially torn calf, and he would not be eligible to return until the postseason. The Red Sox are currently on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff race, four games back of the American League’s last wild card entering Wednesday.

Tied with Boston in the standings is the team Paxton spent the majority of his career with, the Seattle Mariners.

Paxton came up in the Mariners’ farm system after being selected by Seattle in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB Draft out of the University of Kentucky. The 6-foot-4, 212-pound southpaw grew up less than three hours away from Seattle just over the Canadian border in Ladner, British Columbia.

With the Mariners, Paxton had a stretch where he was one of the better starting pitchers in MLB, particularly from 2016-18. His best year was 2017 when he made 24 starts and finished the season with a 2.98 ERA, 1.103 WHIP and 156 strikeouts. Then again, it might have been 2018, which is when he started 28 games, posted a 3.76 ERA, 1.098 WHIP, 208 strikeouts and tied for the league lead with two complete games and one shutout. That shutout was especially memorable. It was a no-hitter against the Blue Jays in Toronto, making Paxton the first and so far only Canadian pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his home country.

Paxton flashing his Canadian maple leaf tattoo after shutting down the Blue Jays is perhaps the most iconic moment of his career, but the time just a month prior when an eagle perched itself on him during opening day ceremonies in Minnesota is at least a close second.

Paxton was traded by the M’s to the Yankees following the 2018 season, and he spent two seasons with New York before making a brief return to Seattle in 2021 that unfortunately ended after just 1 1/3 innings due to a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery.

Paxton returned to the big leagues with Boston in 2023, then made 18 starts for the Dodgers this year before he was traded back to the Red Sox, who he made three starts with before suffering his calf injury.

In Mariners history, Paxton is tied for the best career ERA among starting pitchers at 3.42, a record he shares with Félix Hernández, Randy Johnson and Hisashi Iwakuma, and has the best FIP (fielding indepent pitching) mark at 3.13. He’s also second in strikeouts per nine innings (9.545) and third in WHIP (1.186).