YANKEES TRADE FOR PAXTON
Mariners deal pitcher for trio of N.Y. prospects
Talented left-handed pitcher goes from Seattle to New York for three prospects, including one that was rated the Yankees’ best.
NEW YORK — Left-hander James Paxton was acquired by the Yankees from the Seattle Mariners for a trio of prospects Monday, bolstering the thin starting rotation that contributed to New York’s loss to Boston in the AL Division Series.
New York sent left-hander Justus Sheffield to the Mariners along with righthander Erik Swanson and outfielder Dom Thompson-Williams.
Paxton turned 30 on Nov. 6 and went 11-6 with a 3.76 ERA in 28 starts last season, including a no-hitter at Toronto on May 8. Paxton, a proud Canadian, is also known for keeping his composure as a bald eagle mistakenly landed on his shoulder prior to a start at Minnesota in April.
He joins a rotation projected to include right-handers Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka and left-hander CC Sabathia.
Paxton made $4.9 million last season and is eligible for salary arbitration. He can become a free agent after the 2020 season.
Sheffield is rated among the top minor league prospects, made his big league debut in September and pitched in three games for the Yankees. He had a 2.48 ERA in 25 minor league appearances at Double-A and Triple-A this year, striking out 123 in 116 innings and allowing just four home runs.
Sheffield won’t turn 23 until May and could become a future anchor to Seattle’s rotation.
Swanson, 25, started the year at Double-A Trenton but spent most of 2018 at the Triple-A level with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he made 13 starts and had a 3.86 ERA. Swanson had 78 strikeouts and 14 walks in 72⅓ innings in Triple-A. He pitched 121⅔ total innings last season overall and was rated among the top 25 prospects in the Yankees organization by MLB.com.
Thompson-Williams, 23, has never played above Class A and will turn 24 next April. He had 22 home runs, 20 stolen bases and a .299 average across two Class A affiliates this year.
HALL OF FAME BALLOT: Career saves leader Mariano Rivera and late pitcher Roy Halladay are among 20 new candidates on the Hall of Fame ballot for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, joined by 15 holdovers headed by Edgar Martinez.
Left-hander Andy Pettitte and infielders Todd Helton, Michael Young and Miguel Tejada also are among the newcomers on the ballot announced Monday.
Steroids-tainted stars Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds each appear on the ballot for the seventh time. Clemens rose to 57.3 percent in the 2018 ballot but fell 75 votes short of the 75 percent needed, and Bonds was 79 votes shy at 56.4 percent. Martinez was 20 votes short at 70.4 percent, Mike Mussina at 63.5 percent and Curt Schilling at 51.2 percent.
Rivera had 652 regular-season saves and 42 in the postseason during 19 seasons with the New York Yankees that included five World Series titles.
Halladay won Cy Young Awards with Toronto in 2003 and Philadelphia in 2010 and was 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA in 16 seasons. He pitched a perfect game against Florida in 2010 and a no-hitter that fall versus Cincinnati in the NL Championship Series opener — only the second postseason no-hitter after Dan Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Halladay died piloting a plane in November 2017.
Pettitte was 256-153 with a 3.85 ERA in 15 seasons with the Yankees and three with Houston and went 19-11 record with a 3.81 ERA in 44 postseason starts.
Helton hit .316 in 15 seasons for Colorado with 369 homers, 1,406 RBIs and 1,401 runs, and Young hit .300 in 14 seasons, all but the last with Texas.
Tejada batted .285 with 307 homers and 1,302 RBIs in 16 seasons.
More than 400 ballots are being sent to eligible voters from the BBWAA, and a player must receive at least 75 percent for election. Ballots are due by Dec. 31 and results will be announced Jan. 22. Voters must have been members of the BBWAA for 10 consecutive years.
Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrer and Jim Thome were elected last year.
Players remain on the ballot for up to 10 years, provided they receive at least 5 percent of the vote annually. Martinez and first baseman Fred McGriff (23.2 percent last year) are on the BBWAA ballot for the final time.
Additional newcomers on this year’s ballot include infielder Placido Polanco and outfielder Juan Pierre. Holdovers include reliever Billy Wagner, second baseman Jeff Kent, shortstop Omar Vizquel, third baseman Scott Rolen and outfielders Andruw Jones, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa and Larry Walker.
BREWERS: Milwaukee has rounded out manager Craig Counsell’s staff, bringing in Steve Karsay as bullpen coach to work with new pitching coach Chris Hook.
Hook was promoted from pitching coordinator following 11 seasons in Milwaukee’s minor league system as an instructor. He’ll be joined by Karsay, an 11-year major league veteran who spent the past three seasons as pitching coach at Triple-A Columbus in Cleveland’s system. Karsay worked with Indians starters Michael Clevinger and Shane Bieber.
Milwaukee also added Andy Haines as hitting coach. Haines spent one season as assistant hitting coach for the NL Central-rival Chicago Cubs. He was the Cubs’ minor league hitting coordinator from 2016-17.
CARDINALS: The powder-blue uniforms are back for the St. Louis Cardinals, a throwback to the “Whiteyball” era.
The Cardinals on Monday unveiled the new jersey with a blue color similar to what the team wore for away games from 1976 through 1984, perhaps most famously during the World Series-winning 1982 season under manager Whitey Herzog.
The difference is the new jersey is button-down rather than pull-over, and has the “St. Louis” script of Saturday home games, rather than the traditional “Cardinals” script.
NATIONALS: Catcher Kurt Suzuki is heading back to the Washington Nationals after agreeing to a $10 million, twoyear contract, a deal pending a successful physical.
The deal was disclosed to The Associated Press on Monday by a person familiar with the agreement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract was not yet official.
The 35-year-old Suzuki would get $4 million next year and $6 million in 2020, up from $3.5 million last season, his second with the Atlanta Braves.