James Paxton puts family before baseball.
The veteran Red Sox left-hander announced Wednesday that he plans to retire after the season, ending a solid 11-year career that was too often limited by injuries.
Paxton is currently on the 60-day injured list with a strained right calf, meaning his career is likely over as the Red Sox sit four games out of a wild-card spot with 16 games left on the schedule.
The 35-year-old has a career record of 73-41 with an ERA of 3.77 in 177 starts.
“I hope we push ourselves into the postseason and I get the opportunity to pitch again,” Paxton said Wednesday on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “But I think after this season I’ll retire and start the next chapter.”
He added: “It’s been tough. Obviously, I believe I can still do it. I can still go out there and compete and help a team win. But I just think, given my family’s situation and what they need right now, they need me home, and I feel a duty and a responsibility to be home with my family, and I’m looking forward to being home with my family and spending more time with them as well.”
Due to injuries, Paxton was never able to reach his full potential throughout his career and was not able to consistently be the top player he was able to be during his time with the Mariners, Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.
The left-hander has never started more than 29 times in his career and has never managed more than 160 ⅓ innings in the regular season, and he has struggled to stay on the field, especially over the last five years.
Paxton went 41-26 in seven seasons with the Mariners before being traded to the Yankees. In his last strong season in 2019, he went 15-6 with a 3.82 ERA and a career-high 29 starts.
He started just five times for the Yankees in the COVID-shortened 2020 season after having a cyst removed and straining his left flexor tendon. He started just once for the Mariners in 2021 before undergoing Tommy John surgery, then missed the entire 2022 season due to recovery time and a torn latissimus dorsi.
Paxton went 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA for the Red Sox last year and is 9-3 with a 4.40 ERA this year with both the Dodgers and Red Sox.
His last start was on August 11, where he managed only two outs before leaving the game with a strained right calf.
He said he had talked about his retirement throughout the season and described it as “a pretty slow process.”
“After everything that’s happened and where we are as a family,” Paxton said, “we just came to the conclusion that this was the end of baseball for me and it was time to settle down at home and take care of the family.”
