Yankees: James Paxton returns to Seattle to face off against his former club and Justus Sheffield

On Wednesday afternoon Yankees starter James Paxton will return to Seattle to face off again his former club for the first time since they traded him to New York this past offseason. He’ll also goe toe to toe again Justus Sheffield the Yankees former top pitching prospects who they traded to the Mariners to acquire him.

Wednesday’s series finale between the Yankees and Mariners might seem like just another game in August, but for both fanbases, it will actually be one of the most intriguing matchups they’ve seen all season. It’s very rare a pitching matchup features two starters who were traded for each other the previous offseason so it will very interesting to see who comes out on top.

From 2013 to 2018 James Paxton spent parts of the first six seasons of his career in Seattle so you can bet this is a game he’s had marked on his calendar for a long time. Paxton struggled with injuries during his tenure with the club but when he was healthy he was one of their better starting pitchers in recent franchise history. In 102 starts, he went 41-26 with a 3.42 ERA and 617 K’s and is probably best remembered for throwing a no-hitter last season in Toronto on May 8th.

On a personal and emotional level, this is obviously a big start for the Yankee left-hander but from a team standpoint, it’s even bigger as he’ll look to build off his previous outing against the Dodgers which was one of his best of the season. He dominated the best lineup in the National League on the road, allowing only two runs in 6.2 innings with 11 strikeouts.

Paxton has a career 2.98 ERA in 50 starts at T-Mobile Park (formerly known as Safeco Field) so hopefully, he can have another strong performance and avoid the first inning troubles that have plagued him all season long. The Yankees desperately need him to continue to trend upward with the postseason nearing and emerge as a front of the rotation starter they can rely on in October.

As for Sheffield, Wednesday afternoon will mark the biggest start of his young career, albeit his second one in the big leagues. The Yankees had extremely high hopes for the 23-year-old southpaw after he was acquired in the Andrew Miller trade along with Clint Frazier back in July of 2016. Over the course of two and half-seasons with the organization Sheffield pitched well, but towards the end of his Yankees tenure concerns arose about whether or not he had the make-up to be a successful big league starter.

At the time he was traded to Seattle he was still highly regarded around baseball as one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in the game, just not by the Yankees anymore. Earlier this season with Mariners we got a glimpse of why the Yankees soured on Sheffield’s potential last season when he started this year at Triple-A Tacoma with a 2-6 record and a 6.87 ERA.

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Sheffield was actually demoted to Double-A Arkansas following his struggles but he turned things around in a big way pitching to a 2.19 ERA in 12 starts. His success led to his call up last week and the first start of his major league career on Friday against the Blue Jays. He went four innings and allowed three earned runs on seven hits.

Entering play on Wednesday it’s doubtful the Yankees and GM Brian Cashman regrets trading Sheffield, even though Paxton hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations in year one. That being said, it’s hard to judge who won the trade just yet considering how Sheffield’s major league career is just getting started. He’s still only 23 years-old and now that he’s finally in a big league rotation he’s got plenty of starts ahead of him to be judged on.

Regardless of how Wednesday plays out, it will still be too early to pick a winner. The earliest we can do that is after we see how Paxton performs on the October stage during his first taste of playoff baseball. For now, however, the Yankees just hope Paxton continues to heat up and shows his former club what they’re missing. Sheffield will try to do the same.

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