Walker

Buehler

Buehler appears penciled into a spot in San Diego’s season-opening rotation with veteran Joe Musgrove (elbow) requiring a trip to the injured list. We’re hesitant to draw any firm conclusions based on spring training outings, especially since this one came against a watered-down San Francisco lineup featuring only a few regulars. Not to mention that Buehler was abysmal for long stretches between the Red Sox and Phillies last year. His fastball velocity hasn’t returned to previous career levels and there’s little reason to believe he’ll be a fantasy-relevant option again.

This seemed all but certain after Stammen said that Musgrove was “in a bit of a holding pattern” last week. At this point, Musgrove has not thrown in over a week after he didn’t recover well following a March 4th outing against Team Great Britain. It’s impossible to predict when Musgrove will return until he gets back on the mound again. With him out, there’s a chance that Walker Buehler could earn the final spot in the Padres’ rotation.

It was quite a surprise to see Buehler back on the mound in the third after a second straight lengthy layoff while the Padres were totaling 17 runs, but he held up fine. His velocity today was down about 1.5 mph from last year, which isn’t surprising after his late signing. He’ll probably need to go spend some time in Triple-A at the beginning of the year.

The Padres have been stockpiling rotation depth over the past couple of days, signing German Marquez and Griffin Canning to one-year, major league deals and now adding Buehler on a minor league pact. The 31-year-old hurler posted an underwhelming 4.93 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and a 92/61 K/BB ratio over 126 innings between the Red Sox and Phillies in 2025.

No one ever appeared very interested in betting on a rebound from Buehler after he posted a 4.93 ERA and just a 16% strikeout rate last season, but at least here he’ll get nice weather, a fine pitcher’s park and a chance to compete for a spot in a rotation with two pretty obvious holes. It’ll be worth keeping an eye on him.

Buehler struck out two opposing hitters in the ballgame. All three of the hits that he did allow in the contest were singles. The only real threat against him came in the third inning as the Marlins loaded the bases with two outs, but Buehler battled back to get Liam Hicks on a pop out to second to end the inning. The 31-year-old right-hander got seven whiffs on 74 pitches on the night, posting an underwhelming CSW of just 20 percent. He concludes the regular season with a 10-7 record and an underwhelming 4.93 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and a 92/61 K/BB ratio over 126 innings in 26 appearances (24 starts) between the Red Sox and Phillies.

Buehler piggybacked with Taijuan Walker, with Walker going the four and Buehler getting the next four; minus one out. That allowed Buehler to get the win, but he was deserving of that W while allowing just two hits and two walks and striking out three. The 31-year-old will likely pitch in a similar role with Walker on Thursday against the Marlins, although it’s possible Philadelphia could play with the rotation to end the season.

Piggyback fever is sweeping the nation. The Phillies become the latest organization to take the plunge with the Walker/Buehler tandem — seriously, you can’t make this stuff up — enabling the club to set up their rotation by having Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez face the Diamondbacks this weekend, which puts Cristopher Sánchez on track to start Game 1 of the NLDS.

After being released by the Red Sox and not pitching for nearly three weeks, Buehler turned in a solid start here. It wasn’t flashy by any means as he mixed six different pitches to flank his fastball, but it was effective against this poor Royals lineup. The kitchen sink approach worked well for him as he was able to vary his pitch usage in every different count to keep the opposing hitters off-balance. If he takes another turn in the rotation, it’ll likely come next Friday against the Diamondbacks.

Buehler is up and will make the start Friday against Kansas City. The 31-year-old was signed to a minor-league deal by the Phillies at the end of August, and now will get a chance to help the Philadelphia rotation. Buehler was awful in his time with the Red Sox as seen in a 5.84 ERA, but he’s obviously had plenty of success at the highest level. Fantasy managers probably don’t wanna take the risk with this outing, however.