25 most important stars for MLB playoffs

24. James Paxton

The Yankees are expected to turn to big left-hander James Paxton to start Game 1 of the ALDS against the Twins. He left his final regular season start with nerve irritation, but the effects are not expected to linger into October. Paxton will take the ball by default as the healthiest/most consistent option in the Yankees rotation.

Paxton’s first season with the Yankees followed what has become a typical script for him over the course of his seven-year career. He was at times brilliant, utterly unhittable, at times shaky and, of course, at times injured. Paxton was able to give the Yankees 29 starts and just over 150 innings. The 30-year-old finished the year 15-6 with a 3.82 and struck out 11.1 per-nine. Paxton has yet to make over 30 starts in a season and has only thrown more than 150 innings twice.

There is obviously ace potential somewhere in Paxton, as evidenced by his high strikeout rate and stretches like his first four starts of September. In those four starts, Paxton recorded four wins with a 0.36 ERA and struck out 29 in 24.2 innings with only 11 hits allowed. As dominant as Paxton can look at times, he can also be hard to predict from start to start. He allowed four earned runs or more in seven of his 29 starts and failed to reach the sixth inning in 16 of them.

With their loaded bullpen, the Yankees can obviously afford to only ask Paxton for five strong innings, but he remains the strongest option in their rotation outside of Luis Severino who is still being ramped up to full strength. The Yankees don’t need their “No. 1” starter to function as a true ace to win, but it does become more important in October than the regular season.