The James Paxton trade was one of the first of Major League Baseball's offseason, and part of the New York Yankees' thinking in grabbing the left-hander from Seattle was that it would inoculate them from any desperation. No matter what followed, the Yankees would know that their rotation would start with Paxton, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia, and that they would not feel compelled to overbid or overcompensate.
When the Washington Nationals added a sixth year to their offer for Patrick Corbin, the Yankees did not chase that.