Walker Buehler candidly addresses recent struggles, future with Red Sox originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Professional athletes often can be their own worst critics, and Walker Buehler certainly seems to fall into that category.
After signing a one-year, $21 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in free agency, the 30-year-old right-hander is on pace for the worst season of his major league career. He’s allowed three or more runs in 10 of his 16 starts, surrendered 25 earned runs over five outings in June (11.07 ERA) and owns a 6.12 ERA after giving up three runs over six innings against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night.
In fact, Buehler’s 2025 campaign has been so rocky that Thursday’s outing represented a sign of improvement: He pitched into the sixth inning for the first time since June 11 and allowed just five hits in Boston’s 4-3 win.
Buehler’s frustration with how his season has gone to date — and his relief to see even moderate progress — was evident after Thursday’s game.
“It’s nice to go through a week of prep, the five days or whatever, and not feel like I should just retire,” Buehler told reporters at Fenway Park. “I don’t think I’m going to retire anytime soon, but you get into some really dark places and that’s what happens.”
Buehler’s “dark place” included questioning whether he’d remain in the Red Sox’ rotation.
Despite his impressive pedigree — two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers — Buehler is well aware that starters Hunter Dobbins and Tanner Houck are nearing their return from the injured list, and that he’ll need to deliver results to keep getting the ball every fifth game. Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello both have been excellent lately, while Garrett Crochet has lived up to his ace billing.
If Dobbins and Houck both re-establish themselves as effective starters, that could leave Buehler as the sixth option in a five-man rotation.
“There’s some realities to the game, and some really talented guys that we have that have been good at the big league level that are in Triple-A right now and deserve to pitch in the big leagues,” Buehler said. “And at some point, you’ve got to show some sign of being able to dominate a baseball game and not just survive it.”
Buehler believes he has made real progress since that disastrous stretch in June, noting that he recently raised his arm slot angle by several degrees and that he was happy with “about 70 percent” of his pitches in Thursday night’s game after — a far cry from a June 23 outing in which he “probably made three throws that I like.”
“To get back to that feeling instead of kind of pure panic of, ‘How could I ever get anyone out?’ I think more so even than what happens on the field, I think that feeling is important for me,” Buehler said. “It makes me really excited about not only our group, but hopefully being a part of it for kind of this run at the end.”
Whether Buehler is around at the end of the season remains to be seen. If the Red Sox are comfortable with Dobbins and Houck in the rotation, they could look to move Buehler at the July 31 MLB trade deadline before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next winter.
Then again, the eight-year veteran has an excellent postseason track record — 3.04 ERA over 94.2 innings in the playoffs — and could be a valuable asset to a young Red Sox team with hopes of playing in October.
Dobbins is set to start Friday night against the Rays at Fenway Park in his return from the injured list as Boston looks to extend a seven-game winning streak.
