The Boston Red Sox finalized their one-year, $21.05 million contract with Walker Buehler on Saturday. Buehler’s signing brings the Red Sox 40-man roster full.
Buehler joins Boston after spending his entire career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That culminated with playing a pivotal role to help the team win their eighth World Series title in franchise history.
Buehler struggled throughout the regular season in his return from a second career Tommy John surgery, going 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in 16 starts.
But the pressure of postseason baseball again drew the best out of him, as Buehler finished the playoffs with a streak of 13 scoreless innings. That ended with memorably closing out Game 5 of the World Series on just one day of rest.
There was some belief Buehler’s postseason pedigree and strong market for starting pitchers would lead to signing a multi-year deal. He instead signed for the equivalent of the qualifying offer for the 2025 season, which the Dodgers decided not to extend to Buehler.
The Red Sox signing Buehler is the second noteworthy move to address their starting rotation this offseason. Boston previously completed a trade for Garrett Crochet in the wake of Max Fried signing with the New York Yankees.
While Crochet and Buehler are needed additions, the Red Sox have also missed big in free agency thus far. They were part of the Juan Soto sweepstakes before he signed with the New York Mets and also had interest in Teoscar Hernández.
However, it’s not believed the Red Sox were particularly close to signing Hernández before he agreed to return to the Dodgers on a three-year contract despite having a need in their outfield with Tyler O’Neill joining the Baltimore Orioles.
Nevertheless, one National League executive believes the Red Sox ultimately could have made the shrewdest signing of the offseason in Buehler.
Walker Buehler’s Dodgers career
The Dodgers drafted Buehler in the first round (No. 24 overall pick) in 2015. He underwent a first Tommy John surgery soon after and made his MLB debut in 2017.
Buehler then became a fixture in the Dodgers rotation in 2018, which included memorably starting Game 163 against the Colorado Rockies to win the NL West.
Buehler went 47-22 with a 3.27 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 131 games (122 starts) over his Dodgers career. Those seven seasons included two All-Star Game selections, All-MLB First Team selection in 2021 and two World Series titles.
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