The last pitch of their 2024 World Series victory is the last pitch Walker Buehler will throw for the Dodgers.
Buehler has reportedly agreed to a one-year, $21.05 million contract with the Boston Red Sox that also includes $2.5 million in potential bonuses. The deal is pending a physical.
The Dodgers did not make the qualifying offer to Buehler when he became a free agent in November. This year’s qualifying offer is a one-year, $21.05 million contract.
On a recent podcast appearance, Buehler acknowledged the stressful nature of free agency.
“I think the idea of it is super exciting,” he said on “Just Baseball.” “I think in reality, it’s pretty stressful. There’s good parts and bad parts, obviously. I’m not, like, freaking out. But you also want to know what you’re doing and whatnot.”
The Dodgers made Buehler their first-round pick out of Vanderbilt in the 2015 draft even though he needed Tommy John surgery immediately after the draft. He made his major-league debut as a September callup in 2017 then spent the next five seasons as a fixture in the Dodgers’ starting rotation.
Buehler made the All-Star team in 2019 and 2021 and established himself as a “big-game” pitcher with his performance in the Dodgers’ one-game playoff for the division with the Colorado Rockies in 2018 (one hit in 6 2/3 scoreless innings) and in the postseason. He leaves the Dodgers with a 3.04 ERA in 19 postseason appearances including just one run in 19 World Series innings.
Buehler underwent a second Tommy John surgery and a flexor tendon repair in 2022 and missed all of the 2023 season. He struggled to regain his form in his comeback season, going 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in 18 starts during the 2024 season.
But he came through for the Dodgers during the postseason again, throwing 10 scoreless innings in the NLCS and World Series including the final inning of the clinching victory over the New York Yankees.
Just two days after throwing five scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ Game 3 victory at Yankee Stadium, Buehler volunteered to pitch out of the bullpen in Game 5 and retired the side in order in the ninth inning, striking out the final two batters to secure the Dodgers’ first full-season World Series victory since 1988.
The Dodgers 2025 rotation will include a number of pitchers returning from injuries (Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May) as well as two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell, signed to a five-year, $182 million contract as a free agent.