A disappointing season for Red Sox’s righty Walker Buehler continued on Tuesday. He only completed four innings while allowing four hits and as many walks in a home loss to the Orioles. It was the fourth time in his past five outings that Buehler issued at least three free passes, and his season earned run average is up to 5.40 across 22 starts.
Asked this evening whether Buehler would make his scheduled start on Monday, manager Alex Cora said the team “(hasn’t) talked about it yet” (via Tim Healey of The Boston Globe). While Cora wasn’t interested in discussing the situation publicly, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Sox are having internal conversations about moving Buehler to the bullpen. It’s not out of the question that he pitches in relief at some point during this weekend’s series against the Yankees. That’d obviously rule him out of starting Monday in what would be a rematch against Baltimore.
Buehler hasn’t been anywhere near as effective as hoped. The Sox signed him to a one-year, $21.05MM free agent deal that matched the price of the qualifying offer that he didn’t receive from the Dodgers. Buehler had a very poor regular season in 2024 (5.38 ERA in 16 starts) but hit the market with positive buzz after closing out the World Series. That convinced the Sox he was a solid upside play, but Buehler’s numbers this year are even worse than those of the 2024 regular season.
The righty has a career-low 16.5% strikeout rate and has gotten whiffs on just 7.7% of his pitches. The recent command woes have pushed his walk rate north of 10% for the first time in his career (outside of a 2017 debut in which he pitched fewer than 10 innings). Buehler carried a 6.12 ERA into the All-Star Break. While he has managed a serviceable 3.66 mark in the second half, he has walked as many batters as he has struck out over his past six starts.
Boston recalled former fifth starter Richard Fitts from Triple-A Worcester this afternoon. Cora said that Fitts, who has started all 17 appearances between MLB and the upper minors, will be available out of the bullpen. Fitts averaged only four innings per start while posting a near-5.00 ERA in the big leagues. The Sox pushed him out of the rotation when they acquired Dustin May at the deadline. They could reverse course and have him start on Monday.
Boston could also use both Buehler and Fitts in relief and recall one of Kyle Harrison or Cooper Criswell to work as the fifth starter. Harrison has made 10 Triple-A starts since being acquired in the Rafael Devers deal. He has a solid 3.69 ERA but has walked 12% of batters faced while averaging fewer than five innings per start with Worcester. Criswell has a 3.70 mark in 65 2/3 frames over 16 Triple-A outings.
If the Sox do pull Buehler from the rotation, it’d impact him financially. He has already picked up $1MM in bonuses by reaching 20 and 22 starts. He’d unlock another $500K each at 24, 26, and 28 starts. He’ll be a free agent next offseason when the Sox decline their end of a mutual option in favor of a $3MM buyout.
Don’t bother. Just cut your losses and dfa him
Sox looking at creating another unhappy player, at least this time they can cut bait after this season.
Walker Buehler’s day off
I wonder what he will get next year? $5M?
$12M-$14M plus incentives and a vesting player option.
YBC – Yankees have thrown 151 pitches, 69 were balls.
Hicks would fit perfectly on the Yankees staff!
Wait
$21.05 million guaranteed
Plus $1 million for 20 and 22 starts
Plus another $1.5 million possible
Plus the $3 million buyout
$25.05 million already guaranteed paid/to be paid
Just DFA him.
I think the $3M buyout is included in the $21M guarantee.
At least he is making decisions easy. Yes, throw him into relief and hope for the best.
A lot of people were hyping up that signing on here.
A couple of decent postseason starts and he was “Back” lmao.
Yep, I was pretty excited about the signing. Thought it was a good move at the time.
If he were truly back the Dodgers would have made him a qualifying offer. And either they get good walker or a solid pick.
Love the guy, and he’s in Dodgers lore forever. But his arm wasn’t ready for a full season.
Maybe in the off-season the dodgers can give him a show me one year deal if they feel he’s ready for the role.
In the meantime, I appreciate the Red Sox taking care of him with that $25 mil.
Looks like this is the point in Buehler’s career where he really needs to transition into a reliever full time and market himself accordingly this winter. Clear he’s never gonna be the SP he used to be, so it’s time to embrace the change.
How about the Portland Seadogs bullpen?
It’s no surprise that Buehler is having this kind of a season after 2 Tommy John surgeries. Prior to this season there had only been 3 starting pitchers that have returned from a 2nd one, thrown more than 100 IP, and produced an ERA under 4.00. DeGrom will be #4 on that list. Out of 58 SP that have had the surgery twice and came back to pitch.
Eovaldi ?
Two TJ surgeries in the new one at this point.
21 million for betting on a guy returning to pre Tommy John stats
Put him in the bullpen? Why? The first two innings are his worst. That will not translate well to the pen.
Criswell isn’t an option right now.
He just went on the IL with right elbow inflammation.
This team is driving me insane with these RISP catastrophes!!!
A two strike swing is needed to address it. Shorten up, spread out, and make contact!
Spot on.
Roman!!!!
It’s an even more bitter pill to swallow watching Nick Pivetta (who he replaced) dominate this season for the Padres. I know he may not have been quite as good had he returned to the Sox, but he also most definitely wouldn’t have been nearly as bad as Buehler has been.
I think Pivetta benefits a ton from pitching half his games at Petco instead of Fenway. Fenway is the second most hitter friendly park, and Petco is a pitcher friendly park.
Good for him though, he always had he stuff and just couldn’t put it all together consistently.
I don’t think he would have been this successful in Boston, and he’s might (might!) finish top 5 in NL Cy Young voting.
A 3.66 ERA is “serviceable?” I’d call it pretty good.
The walks are terrible and the K/9 isn’t all that good either but he had a pair of quality starts in July and August. Harrison and Fitts are both options for the five but they aren’t any better than Buehler, he is still the best option for the five.