Has James Paxton flipped the switch?

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty ImagesWhen the Yankees decided against making a big move for a pitcher at the trade deadline, they subsequently put pressure squarely on the pitchers they had in-house. Without external reinforcements on the way, the onus was on the team’s struggling starting pitchers to provide internal improvement. There would be no other way to fix what was ailing the Yankees’ pitching staff.

If that group of underperforming starters was to step up, they were likely to take one of two distinct paths. Either they would stick to what they were doing and hope some combination of better luck and better execution would lead to better results, or they would make adjustments, big or…