Glew: 15 things you might not know about James Paxton
Junior National Team alum James Paxton (Ladner, B.C.) is set to become the 14th member of Baseball Canada’s Wall of Excellence.
January 6, 2026
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
On Saturday, James Paxton will become the 14th member of Baseball Canada’s Wall of Excellence.
The Junior National Team alum and ex-big leaguer will be the third left-handed pitcher to be honoured on the wall, joining Jeff Francis (North Delta, B.C., 2016) and Adam Loewen (Surrey, B.C., 2023).
Paxton (Ladner, B.C.) will be officially inducted onto the wall at Baseball Canada’s Awards Banquet & Fundraiser at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel on Saturday night.
The Canadian southpaw, who honed his skills with the North Delta Blue Jays of the B.C. Premier Baseball League, joined the Junior National Team in 2006 and helped them win a bronze medal at the World Junior Baseball Championship in Cuba before heading to the University of Kentucky the following year.
After being selected in the fourth round of the MLB draft by the Seattle Mariners in 2010, Paxton spent his first six big league seasons with the M’s, recording 41 wins and a 3.42 ERA in 102 starts.
On May 8, 2018, he became the second Canadian to throw a big-league no-hitter – and the first to do so on Canadian soil – when he accomplished the feat in a 5-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Paxton struck out seven and walked three in his history-making 99-pitch performance.
Paxton completed that season with an 11-6 record and a 3.76 ERA. He also registered career-bests in innings pitched (160 1/3) and strikeouts (208). For his efforts, he won the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Tip O’Neill Award, as the top Canuck player.
Following that campaign, the 6-foot-4 lefty was dealt to the New York Yankees where he recorded career-highs in wins (15) and starts (29) in 2019 and also recorded a 3.46 ERA in three post-season starts.
He returned to the Mariners in 2021 but made just one start before being forced to undergo Tommy John surgery. His missed the 2022 season but returned to pitch for the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023 and 2024.
In all, in parts of 11 major league seasons, Paxton finished with a 73-41 record and a 3.77 ERA in 177 starts.
According to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, he ranks in the top 10 among Canadian big-league pitchers in several statistical categories, including sixth in strikeouts (1,005), seventh in wins (73), eighth in starts (177) and 10th in WAR (13.9).
These days, Paxton is raising his two children with his wife, Katie, and serves as an advisor/investor in a company called Athlete Complete.
In September, Paxton came out of retirement to pitch to one batter for the Savannah Bananas in a game at T-Mobile Park. That brief appearance foreshadowed what was to come. According to Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, Paxton is planning to pitch for Canada in the World Baseball Classic in March. It’s a tournament he never had the opportunity to participate in during his career.
Here are 15 other things you might not know about Paxton:
Paxton was named to the honour roll every year at Delta Secondary School in Ladner. He was also named to the Academic Honor Roll in all three of his years at the University of Kentucky.
While attending the University of Kentucky, Paxton pitched on a Wildcats’ staff with fellow Canadian left-hander Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Sask.) in 2007 and 2008. The two pitched together again on the Mariners in 2017.
Paxton was originally selected 37th overall by the Blue Jays in the 2009 MLB draft. They chose him with the compensation pick they received for the Yankees’ signing right-hander A.J. Burnett the previous December. However, Paxton and the Blue Jays could not come to an agreement and the left-hander reentered the MLB draft the following year.
When the Blue Jays couldn’t sign Paxton, they received the 38th overall pick in 2010 as compensation. They used that pick to take right-hander Noah Syndergaard.
Paxton was the only Canadian to play for the World Team against the U.S. in the 2011 MLB Futures Game. In that contest, Paxton pitched a three-up, three-down third inning, retiring future big league stars Jason Kipnis, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper.
Paxton made 177 major league pitching appearances – all of them starts. He never pitched out of the bullpen in a big league game.
In July 2017, he became the first Mariners pitcher to win six games in a single month. He went 6-0 with a 1.37 ERA in six starts and was named American League Pitcher of the Month.
It was former Mariners bench coach Tim Bogar who gave Paxton the nickname “Big Maple.”
On May 2, 2018, he started for the Mariners and struck out 16 batters in seven scoreless innings against the Oakland A’s. That set a record (that still stands) for most strikeouts in a major league game by a Canadian pitcher.
Paxton led the American League with two complete games in 2018.
In 2018, he won the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Tip O’Neill Award, as the top Canuck player. That made him just the second left-handed pitcher to win the award. Steve Wilson (Victoria, B.C.) won it in 1989.
Paxton ended his 2019 regular season with the Yankees with 10 straight wins. Over the season’s final two months, he went 10-0 with a 2.51 ERA. He struck out 69 batters in 61 innings.
With the Yankees facing elimination in Game 5 of the 2019 American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros, Paxton started and outdueled three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander to keep the Bombers alive. Paxton allowed just one run on four hits, while striking out nine, in six innings to earn the win in the Yankees’ 4-1 victory.
Paxton excelled in the month of May during his MLB career. In 24 starts in May, he went 10-2 with a 2.22 ERA and had 133 strikeouts in 137 2/3 innings.
In seven starts against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, Paxton went 5-1 with a 3.21 ERA and collected 35 strikeouts in 42 innings.