James Paxton is choosing family over baseball.
The veteran Red Sox lefty starter announced Wednesday he plans to retire after the season, ending a solid 11-season career that was far too often limited by injuries.
Paxton currently is on the 60-day injured list with a right calf strain, meaning his career is likely over with the Red Sox four games back of a wild-card spot with 16 games left on their schedule.
The 35-year-old is 73-41 with a 3.77 ERA across 177 starts in his career.
“I’m hoping that we can squeak into the postseason and I can get an opportunity to pitch again,” Paxton said on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast on Wednesday. “But I think after this season, going to be retiring and moving on to the next chapter.”
He added: “It was tough. Obviously, I think that I can still do it. I can still go out there and compete and help a team win. But I just think with where my family’s at and what they need right now, they need me home, and I feel a duty and a responsibility to be at home with my family and I’m looking forward to being at home with my family and spending more time with them too.”
Paxton’s career is one that never reached its potential due to injuries, preventing him from consistently being the ace he showed he could be during stretches with the Mariners, Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.
The southpaw never made more than 29 starts or topped 160 ⅓ regular-season innings in his career, and particularly struggled to stay on the field over the last five years.
Paxton went 41-26 over seven seasons with the Mariners before being traded to the Yankees, going 15-6 with a 3.82 ERA spanning a career-high 29 starts in 2019 in his last strong season.
He made just five starts for the Yankees in the COVID-shortened 2020 season after having a cyst removed and suffering a left flexor tendon strain, registered just one start in 2021 with the Mariners before undergoing Tommy John surgery and then missed the entire 2022 season due to recovery time and a lat tear.
Paxton went 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA last year for the Red Sox, and is 9-3 with a 4.40 ERA this year spanning time with the Dodgers and Red Sox.
He made his last start on Aug. 11, recording just two outs before exiting with the right calf strain.
He said he had been discussing retirement throughout the season, calling it a “bit of a slow burn.”
“With everything that’s happened and where we’re at as a family,” Paxton said, “we just kind of reached the decision that this was kind of it for me in baseball and it was kind of time to settle in at home and do the family thing.”