For Walker Buehler, the worst season of his career was wiped away by October heroics.
A miserable return from a second Tommy John surgery turned into a redemption story, crystallized in one image: his arms outstretched, satisfied look on his face, begging his teammates to be entertained.
It would pay off for him in his first foray into free agency. Buehler and the Boston Red Sox are in agreement on a one-year, $21.05 million contract, league sources told The Athletic, banking on the idea that Buehler’s postseason turn for the Los Angeles Dodgers is a sign of things to come. The deal, which was first reported by Yahoo Sports, is pending a physical.
Buehler ranked 21st on The Athletic’s Free Agent Big Board, wedged between talented starters with question marks in Shane Bieber and Luis Severino. The Dodgers opted not to give Buehler a qualifying offer, which came as a mild surprise. The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected Buehler to land a two-year, $32 million contract at the outset of the offseason.
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In 16 starts last season, he had a 5.38 ERA, and underlying metrics didn’t paint a rosier picture, either. In the midst of the World Series celebration, Buehler joked he thought he might get released at some point this summer. He spent the middle months of the season away from the team altogether, going to a private facility in Florida to try to recalibrate after struggling to find himself. Little worked, until the lights came on.
“There’s no other way to say it,” Buehler said after recording the final outs of the World Series. “The lights. The big lights. The big thing. It’s hard to explain what that does to you.”
Over 15 innings in the postseason, he logged a 3.60 ERA, not allowing a run over the final 13. His fastball again had its characteristic life to miss enough bats. His curveball found its bite. He toggled with a sweeper that proved to be an effective weapon. He looked like a fire-breathing version of Buehler again, the one that once bullied the opposition with triple-digit fastballs and elicited tales from his teammates of his unrelenting confidence. In his return to the game’s biggest stage, and with little to lose in October, he etched his way into postseason lore once again.
“He went through a lot, but now he’s etched in Dodger glory and royalty forever,” Clayton Kershaw said that night.
This was far from the free agency that Buehler seemed headed for as recently as three years ago, when he topped 200 innings for the first time and finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting. The Dodgers had discussed an extension with Buehler at various points during those early years, though no deal was ever close to fruition. That opened the door to the open market, which wound up looking different than anticipated.
(Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
