Column: The Dodgers hope Walker Buehler can pull off the impossible, but he’s struggling
They can’t afford to keep sending Walker Buehler to the mound. They can’t afford not to either.
“Honestly,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “we don’t have another alternative right now.”
The Dodgers are in a prison of their own making, their harebrained plan to turn their rotation into a nine-figure medical experiment backfiring to such a degree that it has forced them to depend on a pitcher attempting a comeback of historic proportions.
Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers and Jameson Taillon of the Chicago Cubs are the only starting pitchers known to undergo second Tommy John surgeries and return to their previous performance levels. Buehler’s return from a similar procedure has taken a more conventional form, with the Dodgers’ former No. 1 starter posting a 6.09 earned-run average in 10 starts.
Seven starts into his comeback, Walker Buehler is 1-4 with a 4.64 earned-run average. He remains in an exploratory phase, learning what works for him and what doesn’t.
His most recent start looked like more of the same, as he pitched four laborious innings in a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners. Against the team with baseball’s lowest batting average and highest strikeout rate, Buehler was charged with three runs and seven hits. He struck out only one batter, rookie infielder Leo Rivas.
He looked finished.
He isn’t necessarily finished forever, as he figures to be a high-ceiling reclamation project next season for a team that is willing to pay to see if he can recapture his All-Star form with a normal offseason and spring training.
As far as this season is concerned, however, he hasn’t presented the Dodgers with any evidence that he could help them in October. He hasn’t made a case that he can help them now, with 35 games remaining and their lead over the second-place San Diego Padres in the National League West at three games.
Buehler was spared a defeat by a late-inning comeback and said improvements in his delivery made him feel as close to the “me of old” as he has the entire season, but the reality is that he forced the team’s overworked bullpen to cover five innings. This game could affect the next, and the next.
He is needed only because injury-prone Tyler Glasnow and undersized Yoshinobu Yamamoto are expected to remain sidelined for the next couple of weeks. He is needed because River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan and Kyle Hurt are done for the season.
The Dodgers collected pitchers who looked as if they would have trouble staying healthy, and guess what? They’ve had trouble staying healthy.
Which explains why Buehler will start a couple of more games for them between now and Glasnow’s anticipated return in the first week of September.
The alternative paths taken by Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller reflect the challenges unique to each pitcher working his way back into the Dodgers’ rotation.
Buehler knows what he has to do if he wants to be part of the Dodgers’ plans beyond the next couple of weeks.
“We’re trying to get ready for the playoffs and to go and win games,” Buehler said. “It’s kind of time for me to prove that I deserve a place in that. At the end of the day, I’m pretty comfortable with that, in terms of, if I feel like myself, I think I can go.”
At some point, if he’s told there’s no place for him in the rotation, would he understand?
“Yeah,” Buehler said. “You know, it’s not gonna be easy for me and I’m not going to go down lightly. I feel like I can compete in the major leagues and compete in big games the way I felt today. Now, it’s kind of honing that in. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of guys that have thrown the ball great and I have full faith in the three or four guys ahead of me at the time. It is what it is, but I’m not going to cross that bridge until we get there.”
Buehler will be a free agent this winter, which means that the end of his season could mark the end of his tenure with the Dodgers. He had no interest in discussing the subject.
“There’s just not a whole lot to talk about,” he said. “I have a six ERA. I’m trying to figure out how to get people out in the major leagues. Free agency is for talking about when you have a two-five and you’re rolling through the league. I really don’t care. To be honest, I’ve played here my whole career. I love playing here. We’ve won a World Series here.”
Before his most recent elbow procedure, Buehler was known as a big-game pitcher. He opened a playoff series. He pitched in a Game 7. He figures to make at least one more big start: His next one.
How he does could determine whether he extends his season into the fall — or if he’s really as finished as he looks.
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