The Dodgers announced the placement of Walker Buehler on the 15-day injured list. He’s dealing with inflammation in his right hip. That’s the corresponding move for the reinstatement of Bobby Miller from his own 15-day IL stint. Manager Dave Roberts announced last week that Miller would make his return tonight against the Rockies.
Buehler’s IL placement isn’t unexpected. Both Roberts and the veteran righty told reporters last night that it was under consideration. Buehler hasn’t looked like himself in his return from the second Tommy John surgery of his career. He has taken the ball eight times since being activated on May 6. Buehler has been tagged for a 5.84 ERA across 37 innings with alarming underlying indicators. Opponents have already connected on 10 home runs (2.43 per nine) while his strikeout rate has dropped to a personal-low 18.5% clip.
On a per-pitch basis, Buehler has gotten swinging strikes only 7.2% of the time. He had landed somewhere in the 10-12% range in every prior season of his career. Buehler hasn’t had any issues throwing strikes, but his overall performance has been that of a control-oriented #5 starter as opposed to a borderline ace.
It wouldn’t have been fair to expect Buehler to immediately pick back up as a top-flight starter nearly two years since his most recent MLB pitch. He and the Dodgers certainly wouldn’t have anticipated him struggling to this extent, though, so the IL placement will serve as a reset. Buehler’s velocity has come back after the elbow procedure, offering reason for optimism he can sort things out. His four-seam fastball has averaged 95.5 MPH while his 91.5 MPH cutter and 79 MPH knuckle-curve are in line with their respective 2022 figures.
That will leave the Dodgers shorthanded in the rotation. As recently as late last week, Roberts indicated that L.A. was going to move to a six-man unit with Miller’s return. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Buehler since gone down, leaving Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and James Paxton alongside Miller.
Roberts said tonight that L.A. will make a move on Friday to fill the starting spot (X link via Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Righty Landon Knack last pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday, so he’d be on regular rest for a Friday start. Knack pitched well in four MLB starts earlier in the year and has a 3.54 ERA over 48 1/3 frames with OKC. He’s the straightforward choice to draw back into the starting five.
From day off to weeks, months and a full year.
Buehler needs 3 more wins for 50 in his career, we’ll see if he can return from this IL stint and get there this season
50 career wins is a goal now? How long have I been asleep?
Wins for a starting pitcher aren’t that important any more. Remember Felix Hernandez winning the Cy Young with 13 wins? It’s all about peripherals now and team wins.
I will keep saying this even though he is their farm system guy them buying everyone made them feel they can easily win everything. Baseball gods won’t oblige.Dbacks going through worse. Lost top 3 starters all year.
Dude, would you just go away? We all know that you have a chubby for the Dodgers. Find something else to obsess about for the love of God.
Nobody asked you to comment. Dodger fan huh? Don’t like the truth.
Dude every team loses players, the dbags just aren’t good. They got lucky last year
I like seeing “Dbacks and worse” in the same sentence. Now THAT is the truth.
I’m sure you do since your a dodger fan. since you were worse then us in the playoffs and we made you spend 1 billion dollars in a few months
Eat your heart out. Dodgers print money. No biggie.
I agree what makes it more sad you can’t win
Hahaha. Said the guy whose team is 10 games out. And by the way the snakes choked last year.
What even more sad is you think you’re a part of the actual team.
Not a snakes fan sped
There’s reason for optimism with his velocity back to pre-surgery levels. Walker will be fine & help contribute to the Dodgers championship run.
He’ll never be healthy. Dudes approaching 30, and has 2 years with 30 appearances, only 4 with double digits
While his velo is back, the Dodgers shouldn’t have let him talk them into moving him back to the majors because AAA competition wasn’t motivating him to pitch better (he had an ERA above 5). He clearly wasn’t ready as his performance showed. He should’ve been told to work on his command in games that don’t adversely impact the major league club. Selfish dude. Bobby Miller’s done the same thing and has an ERA of 7.20. He and Buehler should be sent to OKC until they are fully healthy and can command all of their pitches.
dodgers just stashing buehler on DL
the real injury is suckitis
Most likely the case. He’s probably their 7th best starter this year, which is wild.
Not really “wild”. I think most teams have a 7th best starter that could hold down a 5.84 era.
Once again, I don’t understand how the Dodgers have such a big lead in the NLW with so many injuries. Even before Betts, Yamamoto and Buehler went on the IL, they were without a lot of the pitchers they were counting on. I will be impressed if they can maintain their lead after this recent wave of injuries.
Have you seen the other teams in the NL West? Dodgers AAA team would likely maintain their lead.
They have one of the most consistent starting four pitchers in the national league before Yamamoto went down. In the Majors. They weren’t counting on hardly any of the pitchers that were injured that you are talking about. They are a bonus.
First in the NL in runs scored; third in runs allowed.
Wait till you see what the script writers have planned for Ohtani
What Dennis Boyd said.
He sucks, so Dodgers are allowed to misuse the IL placement to get around them bringing him back too soon.
Cry!
Dude you are obsessed with anyone not blowing the dodgers. Your a loser just like them
*you’re
As if they are the only team that does this
His best days are behind him and it looks like he’s going to be injury prone for the rest of his career. I remember when people were saying he was better than Kershaw lol.
Trying to catch up to Ferris ? The good part is he doesn’t have much wear on his arm for free agency.
Sad that walker isn’t the same top of the rotation potential perennial cy young candidate I remember
It was fun to watch him from 2019-21 now he looks like a shell of his former self
A few years ago I thought Buehler was in line for a $200MM+ contract. Now he’s probably stuck settling for a one year prove it deal
He’s only 29. Plenty of time to get well and cash in.
He’s no Dustin May, but it’s at least encouraging to see the velocity.
The important thing here is Dave Roberts just gave away another game. He keeps running Alvarez out there in pressure situations and he keeps failing. It is truly amazing. But sure as the Sun rises in the East, we will continue to be stuck with this guy.
The Dodgers have zero players named Alvarez on the active roster. Please improve your trolling.
Only 2 of 53 pitchers have returned from a second TJ to put up a sub 4.00 ERA with 20 or more starts in a season. The odds against Buehler doing it were infinitesimal.
He’s throwing 97 and it has nothing to do with his elbow. F are you even on about?
The worst medical staff in baseball.
Please extend my best wishes for speedy recoveries to Bradish, Coloumbe etc
And Kremer and Wells
And Bautista
Velocity yes, command, no. Guess which one is more important.
ah, someone making sense. Kid has had a couple handfuls of starts in two years, pitching with a hip problem and can’t locate to save his soul at this point, and comments are expecting Cy Young candidate Buehler. This just in: pitching in MLB is hard. It’s harder when you don’t do it a lot.
Friedman stop throwing games by using guys like Y. Ramirez in high leverage situations.
The Dodgers certainly are a “big picture” organization and sometimes that philosophy leads to frustrating game to game decisions. For every time I’ve mumbled under my breath about “effing Roberts”, you see the support his players give him and their, on the surface, seemingly great clubhouse and know he’s the right guy there. Managing people and human interaction is part of the equation, and Roberts certainly excels there. Not sure I’ve ever heard a former Dodger rip Roberts upon leaving. That’s gotta say something about his character and leadership.
Yeah and the point is Roberts keeps his job because he manages the Friedman roster according to the Friedman game plan. But Roberts is the guy with the number on his back so a lot of fans seem to assume he’s making it up as he goes along. But in reality he’s got that number on his back because he does follow the plan.
Buehler is a free agent after this season. Hard to see anything but 1 or 2 year contracts the rest of his career with that extensive injury history he’s dragging around.
He’s had one TJ since turning pro. That’s the extent of his extensive injury history. He will be a short term contract candidate if he continues to struggle.
Maybe if he used normal sized pants he wouldn’t be putting too much pressure on his hip and he’d be ok