Let me start by saying this. I love Walker Buehler. I’ll always love him. I hope that one day in the future he gets inducted into the “Legends of Dodgers Baseball”.
He’s been one of the best starting pitchers for the Dodgers over the last few decades. Unfortunately, those days appear to be behind him. At least for now.
It’s been a rough 2024 for Buehler, to put it kindly. After missing two years with his second Tommy John surgery, Buehler hasn’t looked anything close to the pitcher we had become accustomed to.
In nine starts this season, Buehler has posted a 5.58 ERA, 6.30 FIP and 1.56 WHIP. Not only are those all career-lows for him, those numbers make him one of the worst pitchers in all of baseball. His expected numbers don’t do him any favors either, as he owns a 5.05 xERA and 4.56 xFIP.
I don’t think many of us were expecting Buehler to return and be the Cy Young caliber pitcher he once was. That would be unfair. I was, however, expecting him to at least be a serviceable starting pitcher. He just hasn’t been that.
The sample size is large enough. He’s made nine starts with the big league club and has made nine rehab starts as well. In those nine minor league starts, Buehler posted a 4.98 ERA and 1.72 WHIP. He was awful there as well.
That makes a total of 18 starts. 18! That’s a lot of chances. Buehler just hasn’t looked better at all.
If the Dodgers had a 10-game lead in the division, I’d have no problem continuing to send him out there every week. That would be a luxury they could afford. Well, it’s not. As of the time of this article, the Dodgers have only a two-game lead in the NL West. There’s a chance they could be in third place as early as Monday.
The Dodgers have no room to mess around with this. They need to try their best to win every game moving forward. Sending Walker Buehler out to the mound is showing you’re not serious about that.
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