Seattle Mariners pitcher James Paxton to miss another month

It has been nearly two weeks since the Seattle Mariners placed left-hander James Paxton on the 15-day disabled list as a result of a strained left lat muscle, but this week, it was revealed that Paxton will be on the shelf longer than originally anticipated.

Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports that Paxton’s original timetable (reported at 3 to 4 weeks) was actually quite aggressive:

"At that point (when he was placed on the disabled list), he was scheduled to miss six to eight weeks, manager Lloyd McClendon said Monday.“He’s coming along just fine,” McClendon said. “His workouts are coming along fine and hopefully he’ll continue to progress and be on schedule with that six to eight weeks program.”In a follow-up question, McClendon was asked if that meant Paxton would be back in the rotation at the end of that six-to-eight-week timeline.“Well, we’ll see — (in) six to eight weeks he should be healthy and read to pitch again,” McClendon said. ”Whether or not he’s in the rotation, I don’t know.”"

Yikes. The 25-year-old Paxton has been lights out during his MLB career thus far (1.75 ERA in 36 innings across 6 starts) and this is a bit of a blow to the already banged-up Mariners rotation. All eyes shift to prospect right-hander Taijuan Walker, who appears to be on his way back from injury, but until he arrives and/or Paxton returns, things get ugly in a hurry for Seattle’s rotation.