Walker Buehler became a free agent for the first time in his career after a mixed season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024.
Buehler was coming off a second career Tommy John surgery and found little to no success for much of the year. That was until the playoffs came around and he became an important piece of the Dodgers rotation, even closing out Game 5 of the World Series on one day of rest.
It wasn’t too long ago that Buehler was on track to become one of the highest paid pitchers in baseball. Had it not been for a second right elbow injury, he likely would have received a contract north of $200 million.
But another Tommy John surgery changed the course of his career and Buehler instead settled for a one-year deal at $21.05 million to join the Boston Red Sox, deciding it was the best option presented to him, he said via Chris Cotillo of Mass Live:
“When you’re a rookie, you think free agency is going to be 30 teams calling and telling you exactly what they think and giving you an offer every day and raising that offer every other day and whatnot. But, that’s just not the way it goes,” Buehler said Friday on a Zoom call with reporters. “There’s a lot of talented players in this year’s class and I understand that.
“Also, there’s some different ways to look at my situation that our team (or agents) and I looked at. Do we do a multi-year (deal)? Do we do a one-year (deal)? Do we go somewhere we really want to? Do we go somewhere and try and help build it? For me, the one year in Boston and joining a winning franchise and a historical franchise and a team that has a real chance to win, I think, was the best option.”
Buehler is betting on himself and the Red Sox are hoping he can get back on track. It’s a prototypical low-risk, high reward deal, and at least on National League executive believes it could be the steal of the offseason.
However, Buehler still faces an uphill battle. Pitchers who have undergone multiple elbow reconstruction surgeries have failed to find success again more often than not, and their career is usually shortened significantly.
Buehler’s 2024 season was not promising as he posted a 5.38 ERA with just 64 strikeouts over 75.1 innings and allowed a .289 batting average against.
In the playoffs, things started to click, and the Red Sox are betting on that being the start of the right-hander fully figuring things out.
Dodgers decided against qualifying offer for Walker Buehler
Buehler’s deal with the Red Sox is the same value as what the Dodgers would have offered if they extended him the qualifying offer. They instead chose not to because they did not want to force him into accepting it.
If Buehler had the qualifying offer placed on him, his market would have likely diminished significantly due to the questions surrounding him along with the draft pick compensation a team would lose if signing him.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
