Canadian pitcher James Paxton signed a one-year, $11 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The source spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is subject to successful physical tests.
Paxton can earn up to $13 million if he is healthy at the start of the season and starts at least 20 games.
He joins a Dodgers rotation expected to include newcomers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow as well as Walker Buehler, returning from Tommy John surgery, and either Bobby Miller or Emmet Sheehan.
The Dodgers were baseball’s biggest spenders this offseason, committing more than $1.2 billion to Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Paxton and outfielder Teoscar Hernández.
Paxton receives a signing bonus of three million, payable before February 7 if the contract has been signed and approved by the commissioner’s office, as well as a salary of eight million.
He would receive a million bonus if he is on the active roster on opening day. If Paxton doesn’t get that bonus, he could trigger a $500,000 bonus if he’s on the active roster by April 15.
Paxton can earn a million in performance bonuses for his number of starts, or $250,000 each for the 16th and 18th starts as well as $500,000 for the 20th.e departure.
Paxton, 35, went 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA in his lone season with the Boston Red Sox. He suffered a strained right hamstring in his first start of spring camp on March 3 and did not pitch with it on May 12. The left-hander then didn’t throw after the 1er September due to inflammation in his right knee.
Paxton is 64-38 with a 3.69 ERA in 156 career starts in the majors, with the Seattle Mariners (2013-18, 2021), New York Yankees (2019-20) and the Red Sox.