Between the Major Leagues, Minor Leagues and postseason, Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Walker Buehler threw 176 innings during the 2018 season. It by far was a career high for the right-hander in just his second full season coming off Tommy John surgery.
The plan heading into the 2019 season was for there not to be much, if any, limitations on Buehler. He has a personal goal of reaching the 200-inning threshold.
Just to be cautious though, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said at the beginning of Spring Training that they were going to slow-play Buehler because of the workload he bared in 2018.
Roberts later revealed the real reason for Buehler being moved along slowly in a throwing program was because he wasn’t feeling 100 percent healthy at the beginning of spring. While Buehler still has yet to throw in a Cactus League game, he is now believed to be back to 100 percent without any concerns moving forward.
Buehler recently discussed what he was feeling at the beginning of the spring, and he did attribute his workload from a year ago for him not feeling right, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“My arm didn’t feel like it was moving the way I wanted it to,” said Buehler. “It’s not a pain thing, really, more like something doesn’t move perfectly. And the way I kind of work, I want everything to work correctly.”
“Hangover stuff from last year,” said Buehler, who added that he had discomfort from the start of his offseason throwing program. “Kind of comes and goes. I wasn’t feeling good often enough. Nothing scary, nothing alarming. Just wasn’t right.”
After throwing a couple of live bullpens, Buehler is finally scheduled to make his spring debut on Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians.
Even if Buehler is only built up to four innings or so, Roberts said he will still likely begin the season on the active roster and pitch on during the opening week of the season. So it doesn’t look like he will require a stint on the injured list to begin the year.
