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First year in the bigs: 21 starts, 106.2 IP = 5.1 IP/game. He struck out 8.4, walked 4.3 and gave up too many hits for his stuff.
Second year in the bigs: 30 starts, 169 innings = 5.2 IP/game.  Not much better. Struck out 9.7 but walked almost 5.  Led the league in fewest H/9 (as he would do continuously thereafter).
Third year: same low hits, walks down to almost 3.5 which let him throw an extra 30 innings in the same # of starts.
4th-to-current: BB bottoming out between 2-to-2.5, still the hardest guy to hit in the league with that curve and his other weapons, gained an extra 30 IP again over his year 3 levels.
So Kershaw, the best pitcher in the NL, took until his 4th year to completely harness his talent.  How bout Felix?
Took Felix until his FIFTH year to really become the Felix we love today. He barely scratched 200 IP in year 4, and that was the only time he did it in those first years. Before year 5 he was having to leave games too early (though not as early as Kershaw because he wasn't trying to control that kind of curve ball), giving up too many hits (now he's a league leader in H/9 too) and working too hard in games.
It takes even the great ones a while to figure out their stuff.  Why wouldn't we give Paxton the chance to do that, even if it is a little taxing to the pen?  We have Felix, Kuma and E-Ram who can throw strikes and get deeper into games.  The guy with the bombshell curve may only go 5, but consider it an investment in the future.  Cuz if he becomes somebody else's Kershaw-lite that could kinda stink for us.
~G