Paxton (illness) will have his scheduled start Friday skipped due to a head cold, Greg Johns of MLB.com reports.

EDGE Analysis

Hisashi Iwakuma will take Paxton's spot on the mound for Friday's game against the Royals. Fortunately, Johns is reporting that Paxton is just dealing with a case of the cold, so there's little reason for concern regarding the hard-throwing lefty's status heading into the season. Although Paxton has given up four earned runs over 9.0 innings this spring, he's sporting a strong 11:1 K:BB over that stretch.