Red Sox, RHP Walker Buehler agree to 1-year, $21.05 million deal: Sources

The Boston Red Sox have landed a major piece in their quest to remake their starting rotation. According to Yahoo Sports' Russell Dorsey, the Red Sox and right-hander Walker Buehler are in agreement on a one-year, $21.05 million deal. The deal includes incentives and is pending a physical.

Buehler, 30, is a two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the only team he has played for in his seven-year career.

Buehler had a lot of success with the Dodgers over the first few years of his career. He made his first MLB start in 2018, and by the end of the year, the Dodgers were so confident in him that he started the National League West tiebreaker game against the Colorado Rockies, which they won on the back of Buehler's 6 2/3 innings of one-hit ball.

He finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting that season and was an All-Star in 2019.

Buehler had another fantastic year in 2021, pitching to a 2.47 ERA over 33 starts and a staggering 207 2/3 innings. But in 2022, he ran into injury problems. After having arthroscopic surgery on his elbow in June 2022, the Dodgers announced in August that Buehler had undergone another surgery, this time to repair his ulnar collateral ligament and flexor tendon — the dreaded Tommy John surgery. He missed the rest of 2022 and all of 2023, then struggled in 2024, with a 5.38 ERA over 16 starts and 75 1/3 innings.

The Red Sox have landed a great bounce-back candidate in Buehler. He'll be pitching for a new team for the first time in his career and will get to start 2025 fully healthy. It's a great opportunity for him to show what he can do on a low-risk, high-upside, one-year deal that can be beneficial to both Buehler and the Red Sox.

What does this mean for the Red Sox?

Slowly but surely, the Red Sox are putting together a solid offseason and starting to look like a team that is serious about getting back to the postseason in 2025.

The Red Sox’s biggest changes have been in their rotation, where they’ve had a serious overhaul. They added arguably the best starter on the trade market in Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox. They then added left-hander Patrick Sandoval, who’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, and they solidified their veteran presence on Monday by adding Buehler. The No. 23 free agent on Yahoo Sports' list brings to Boston’s rotation a veteran arm who has pitched on baseball's biggest stages and experienced plenty of success. His 18 postseason starts are the most on Boston’s roster by far.

Buehler had other offers, including a few multi-year deals, sources told Yahoo Sports. But the fit and the opportunity to play for a franchise such as the Red Sox while continuing to rebuild his value after a strong postseason was difficult to pass up, and now the pairing is a win for both sides.

At this point, the Red Sox rotation looks like a combination of Crochet and Buehler followed by 2024 All-Star Tanner Houck, Bryan Bello and Lucas Giolito, who missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Kutter Crawford and Garrett Whitlock are also real options to start for the Red Sox. As the Dodgers showed en route to their World Series championship, you can never have too much pitching depth, and such depth will now be a strength for Boston.

With the rotation solidified, the Red Sox biggest need the remainder of this winter is a right-handed bat. So as we close 2024, the question now is which bat? Boston missed out on Juan Soto and several of the top free agents on the position-player market, but there are still a few impact players who would fit. Case in point: Teoscar Hernández, Anthony Santander and Alex Bregman are all still available. Read more. — Dorsey