Things were looking up for the Red Sox in the first half-inning of their series-opening game against the Angels in California on Monday. The team strung together five straight hits in their turn at the plate, scoring three runs for an early lead. But then Walker Buehler happened.
And Buehler, signed to be a stabilizing veteran force in the rotation, has just not been anything close to reliable here in 2025, especially lately.
Buehler gave up five runs in the inning and wound up going four innings, allowing those five runs on three hits and a career-high seven walks. He is now 5-5 with a 6.29 ERA overall, but in his last five starts, the wheels have especially fallen off–he has gone just 22.0 innings in those games, yielding 16 walks and seven home runs, for an ERA of 10.64.
Buehler, a two-time All-Star with the Dodgers, has already spent a short stint on the injured list. There’s really nothing more for the team to do except either keep running him out there or pulling him from the rotation. Manager Alex Cora said that demotion is, indeed, on the table.
“We’ll talk about it,” responded Cora. “But, I mean, like the second and third innings were really good. I mean, velocity was set up, and the movement of pitches were great. But he knows it. You know, we talked a little bit down here.”
Red Sox Getting Pitching Reinforcements
Buehler could be under the gun. The Red Sox gave him a one-year, $21 million contract as a sort of show-me deal, after Buehler struggled with injuries in L.A. last season. So far, he has not shown much. With Tanner Houck working his way back through rehab, perhaps ready next month, and with Boston adding two potential starters–Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison–in the Rafael Devers trade, Buehler is not a lock to stay in the starting rotation.
He was at a loss to explain his struggles.
“You can’t walk seven guys in an major-league baseball game and expect to be successful,” he told reporters. “We keep going through different things and trying different stuff for this mix and that mix but at the end of the day, if you don’t execute and throw strikes, you don’t have a chance, so, yeah, it sounds like a broken record but it’s embarrassing. It’s just not who I want to be as a baseball player.
“Obviously, I’d rather get whacked around than do that. Somehow this year I’ve managed to do all the negative things you can. So, you know, we will keep working, but it’s just tough to letdown our team, especially the first inning we had.”
Walker Buehler: Problems Are ‘Fixable’
But Buehler does see some potential good news. He thinks his issues can be fixed. He said that the Red Sox have done all they can to give him space and tools to fix his problems, so now, it’s up to him to figure it out.
“I think everything is fixable in some way,” he said. “I think the ball is coming out of my hand at times really well and at times I just kind of lose all sight of what the ball’s doing. And It’s just tough. This organization had given me the opportunity, has given me every opportunity to try and contribute and help and, you know, every thought and pitch mix, pitch design, pitch execution, drill, throwing, you know, the training—everybody’s done everything they can except me, at some point.”
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