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, which is the only team he’s played for over 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, 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.