Red Sox interested in Walker Buehler

It is known that the Red Sox are in the search for a starting pitching chief baseball officer Craig Breslow However, he wants to “raise the ceiling” in the rotation. They have been linked to big-name free agents Corbin Burnes And Max Fried as well as well-known trading candidates such as Garrett Crochet, Bryce Miller And Bryan Woo. This is reported by Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe Walker Buhler is another free agent they have interest in.

Whether Buehler would be considered a cap raiser would be debatable at this point, as it has been several years since he was at his best for a meaningful period of time. From 2018 to 2021, he pitched 564 innings for the Dodgers, allowing 2.82 earned runs per nine. He combined a strikeout rate of 27.7%, a walk rate of 6.1% and a ground ball rate of 44.7%. He also pitched well in 15 postseason starts for the Dodgers during that time.

But in 2022, he had a 4.02 ERA before undergoing Tommy John surgery, the second of his career. He missed the entire 2023 campaign and hasn’t bounced back right away this year. He made just 16 starts in 2024 and posted poor results, most notably a 5.38 ERA. His strikeout rate of 18.6% was below league average and also far from his previous form.

He ended things on a positive note, in a very small selection but on a very big stage. After wowing the Padres in the NLDS, he pitched ten shutout innings in his final three Dodgers World Series appearances. This included four shutouts against the Mets in the NLCS, a five-inning start against the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series, followed by the final three outs in Game 5.

Looking ahead to 2025, Buehler is an interesting risk-reward proposition. Its upward trend so far is tempting, but it has been weak or mediocre in recent years. While he had a strong showing in the playoffs, most modern front offices aren’t swayed by such a small sample, even under baseball’s brightest lights.

This uncertainty means that Bühler would likely be available at a relatively low price, making it either a bargain or a waste. The Dodgers declined to make Buehler a qualifying offer of $21.05 million at the end of the season because they clearly did not believe him to be worth that price. At the start of the winter, MLBTR predicted Buehler would get a one-year, $15 million deal, even though the market for pitching was stronger than expected with guys in the middle or on the back end Luis Severino, Yusei Kikuchi, Frankie Montas, Matthew Boyd And Clay Holmes have so far exceeded their forecasts.

Despite recent results, Buehler has proven to be quite popular this winter, having already drawn interest from Atlanta, the A’s, Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Tigers and now Red Sox. They tried a buy-low for Boston last year, but it hasn’t worked so far. After a few hard years, they gave up Lucas Giolito a fairly modest $38.5 million guaranteed on a two-year deal, but elbow surgery wiped out his 2024 season.

The injury isn’t really the Boston front office’s fault, but Giolito has been a risky pick before and it was widely expected that they would pursue more surefire rotation upgrades this time around. The club’s decision-makers have talked about taking an aggressive approach this winter and putting together a club capable of winning the division, even if that means paying competition balance tax.

RosterResource currently puts the club’s CBT figure at $181 million, about $60 million below the base threshold of $241 million. That means they have plenty of room to attack top free agents like Burnes and Fried, but they’re also at least considering a more modest attack for someone like Buehler, or perhaps a combination of both.

The rotation currently includes the following: Tanner Houck, Cutter Crawford And Brayan Bellowith openings on the back. Giolito is expected back at some point, although probably not at the start of the season. Boys like Richard Fitts, Cooper Criswell And Quinn Priest are on the roster, but are still relatively unestablished and still selectable. In addition to Buehler, the Sox could consider other mid-rotation or back-end free agents such as: Sean Manaea, Nathan Eovaldi, Jeff Hoffman, Nick Pivetta, Andrew Heaney, Jose Quintana, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and other.