The start to the career of Los Angeles Dodgers pitching prospect Walker Buehler was not ideal, as after he selected in the first round of 2015 Draft out of Vanderbilt, Buehler was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery. That eliminated any possibility of the right-hander debuting in 2015.
Buehler went through the arduous recovery process and took the mound for his professional debut last July. While the 22-year-old isn’t necessarily knocking on the doorstep of reaching the Majors, as other Dodgers prospects are, Buehler has turned heads this spring.
Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt has been among the organization’s contingent to attend Buehler’s throwing sessions on the backfields at Camelback Ranch, and raved about what he’s seen thus far, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“It’s elite stuff,” said big-league pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. “You take any of these young men and you see their stuff, and all you want to know is, when is the right time? And they tell you when is the right time. But the actual pitch-ability and actual stuff ranks up there pretty much with anybody.”
The organization reportedly refused to trade Buehler during the offseason, most notably to the Minnesota Twins in a possible deal for Brian Dozier.
Due to how high the front office was on Buehler and Yadier Alvarez, they felt comfortable trading their second-best pitching prospect, Jose De Leon, to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Logan Forsythe.
Buehler was only able to throw five innings in 2016 after coming off Tommy John, but he was very impressive in that time. Between the Arizona League Dodgers and Low-A Great Lakes, Buehler tossed five hitless innings, striking out six and walking three.
It is considered a possibility that Buehler will get an opportunity to pitch for the Dodgers during the Freeway Series next week.
