It's tough to predict how players will take to New York
Mariners pitcher James Paxton works against the Athletics during the first inning of a game in Oakland on Sept. 1 Credit: AP/Ben Margot
The last time Brian Cashman acquired a significant veteran pitcher to augment the Yankees’ rotation was when he traded for J.A. Happ in July. All Happ did was go 7-0 down the stretch, although he did have a forgettable start in the ALDS against the Red Sox.
The time before that was Sonny Gray.
When you trade for a pitcher in New York, sometimes you get Happ-iness. Sometimes you get Gray skies.
We were reminded of this reality while listening to Cashman on Monday night during a conference call to welcome the Yankees’ newest addition, lefthander James Paxton, who came over from the Mariners in a trade for three prospects.
Paxton certainly seems as if he will prosper in the Bronx. He turned 30 on Nov. 6 and doesn’t have a ridiculous number of innings on his arm, so he might be on the upside. He had arguably his best season in 2018, when he went 11-6 with a 3.76 ERA in 28 starts. He struck out 208 in 160 1/3 innings, which -- even in an era in which it seems every other batter strikes out -- still is an impressive whiff rate.
Paxton set career highs in starts, innings, strikeouts and no-hitters – the one the native Canadian threw in Toronto on May 8. Paxton also tied for the American League lead in complete games with a whopping two.
On his portion of the conference call, Paxton seemed like a nice, earnest fellow, which makes sense. He’s from Ladner, British Columbia, which is 42 minutes south of Vancouver. Canada is the land of nice.
Sonny Gray is a nice guy, too, if a little squirrelly. When Cashman acquired him from the A’s, he was supposed to be the missing piece for the 2017 Yankees. But Gray’s time in New York was so bad that Cashman’s next deal might be shipping the talented righthander outta town – perhaps back to Oakland, according to some reports.
The point is nobody knows how a player is going to react to New York. Gray wilted. Happ thrived. Randy Johnson disliked it from the moment he arrived. Mike Mussina was wary at first but grew to love it. Going further back, David Cone and Ron Darling became virtual New Yorkers.
I remember being in the media scrum in front of Gray’s locker the day he showed up at Yankee Stadium as Cashman’s latest acquisition. I was struck by how much Gray seemed to be a deer in the headlights, how unprepared Oakland had made him for the New York spotlight.
I turned to the person next to me and said, ‘Well, he’s not going to make it here.” Or maybe I said it to myself in my head. Either way, Gray’s inability to pitch in New York and as a Yankee will go down in Bronx lore along with Ed Whitson and Steve Trout, two successful guys whom the Bronx ate up and spit out.
Ron Blum of The Associated Press asked Cashman on Monday if the Gray experience had taught the Yankees anything about how to vet players on the complicated issue of The Big Apple.
“I can’t tell you we’ve learned anything further other than we drill down as much as we can,” Cashman said. “Whether it’s players that have played with somebody as teammates that we know, or coaches who have coached or managers who have managed. Anybody, whether it’s all the way back in the amateur ranks, we just try to ask a lot of questions about how they compete. This environment can bring out a different experience for some. So I don’t have a new secret formula to address predictability on who will thrive and survive and who won’t here in New York.”
Can Paxton make it here? ‘Cause, as the song says, if he can, he can make it anywhere.
Scratch that. The only thing Yankees fans care about is if he can make it here.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
