In left-hander James Paxton, the Yankees may have secured the best years of a No. 2 starter whose prime has yet to be realized, an American League scout told NJ Advance Media on Monday night.
But the scout, who requested anonymity to speak about another team's player, added that the flip side could be that the Yankees added a player similar in maybe the worst way to one of their biggest headaches: Jacoby Ellsbury.
Paxton, whom the Yankees got from the Mariners in exchange for a prospect package topped by 22-year-old lefty Justus Sheffield, uses a fastball-heavy attack from a funky three-quarters angle that's "deceptive, and even more (so) because he doesn't look like he uses all that much effort" to generate mid-90-mph velocities, the scout said.