The Los Angeles Dodgers designated reliever Wilmer Font for assignment and recalled Walker Buehler from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Buehler is taking the mound in Monday’s series opener against the Miami Marlins.
The start is Buehler’s first of his MLB career, as thus far he’s only made eight relief appearances — each of which came last season. He went 1-0 with a 7.71 ERA, 2.04 WHIP and 12 strikeouts in 9.1 innings.
Buehler made three starts for Oklahoma City before receiving the call-up, going 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA. He admitted to being more surprised with joining the Dodgers at this point when compared to last season.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes the organization’s top pitching prospect is capable of going six innings or 90 pitches in his 2018 debut. Buehler is also a candidate to make another start this weekend in one Saturday’s doubleheader games against the San Francisco Giants.
That still may not prevent the Dodgers from optioning him back to Oklahoma City this week, however. Doing so would normally require Buehler to remain in the Minors for 10 days unless he was replacing an injured player on the active roster, and an exception is also applied to the 26th man rule.
Font made the Major League roster to begin the season despite a rough spring because he was out of Minor League options. His spring struggles carried into the regular season though, yielding an 11.32 ERA, 8.38 FIP and 1.84 WHIP in six appearances (10.1 innings) while striking out seven and walking one. He was on the losing end of two extra-inning games already this season.
If Font clears waivers then it is possible he is outrighted to Oklahoma City, where he had a lot of success in 2017 being named Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year.
