Red Sox Starter Hints His Days in Boston Are Numbered

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Boston Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler

It sounds like Boston Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler thinks there’s a chance that he won’t be with the team after the July 31 trade deadline.

Speaking with reporters on Thursday — after delivering a rare quality start in what has otherwise been a rough season — Buehler seemed to acknowledge the growing rumors that Boston might be open to trading him. While explaining the adjustments he’s made in hopes of turning things around, Buehler added that he wants any improvement to come as part of what he believes will be a strong second half for the Red Sox.

“I’m having so much fun playing here and this group is awesome in a lot of different ways,” he said. ”I really hope I get to be a part of this run.”

Or maybe a parting of the ways would be better for everyone.

Walker Buehler Has Struggled During Lone Season With Boston

When the Red Sox signed Buehler to a one-year, $21 million contract a few days after Christmas, it was with the hope that they were acquiring the pitcher who made a strong postseason cameo to help the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 2024 World Series. Instead, Boston received the same arm that had struggled for the Dodgers over 16 previous starts during the regular season.

Thursday’s start was No. 16 with Boston for Buehler, and all things considered, it actually went pretty well, as Buehler gave up three runs on five hits and three walks with two strikeouts in six innings. Not necessarily one for the memory books, but Buehler did enough to keep the Red Sox in the game until they could score a few late runs and pick up the 4-3 win over Tampa Bay. Which in and of itself was a bit of a moral victory for the 30-year-old right-hander.

“Obviously, the way the year has gone, this is a good start for me,” Buehler said.

It came off the heels of a five-inning stint on July 5 in which Buehler gave up three runs, two of them earned, on eight hits and no walks to get the decision in a 10-3 win over Washington. Again, not what Buehler and the Red Sox are aspiring for, but for Buehler, who had allowed four or more runs in five of his previous six starts, it gave him the chance to take a breath.

“It’s nice to go through a week and a prep, the five days or whatever, and not feel like I should just retire,” Buehler said. “I don’t think I’m going to retire anytime soon, but you get into some really dark places and that’s what happens.”

And while the July starts may have provided a flicker of light for Buehler, there have been plenty of dark spaces since the start of the 2024 season. To his credit, as Jonathan Papelbon stressed during a recent appearance on the “Foul Territory” podcast, Buehler has been very open about the struggles and his efforts to find a solution.

“You got to commend him because, you know, every time he gets interviewed, after a postgame interview, he says that, ‘Hey, this is not me. This is not my stuff. I’m searching. I’m searching right now to try to find my fastball, try to find my slider,’” Papelbon noted.

Walker Buehler Named ‘AL Cy Yuk of the Half-Year’ by The Athletic

But as highlighted in a Friday column for The Athletic , the numbers don’t lie. MLB analyst Jayson Stark handed out his “midseason awards” throughout Major League Baseball, not all of which are coveted, and he labeled Buehler the “AL Cy Yuk of the half-year.”

In his 16 starts, Buehler has gone 6-6 with a 6.12 ERA. Now in his seventh full season, Buehler has allowed 87 hits and 35 walks while striking out 63 in 78 innings, and as noted by Stark, Buehler’s current WHIP (1.56) and opponents OBP (.367) would be the second-worst of any full-time AL starting pitcher, ahead of only Jack Kochanowicz.

So the question then becomes, who would want to trade for Buehler?

Well, he does have a good posteseason resume, and there are a number of contending teams looking for a starting pitcher (or three). Plus, Buehler will be a free agent after the season, so there aren’t many strings attached, and he likely won’t cost much more than a single, mid-level prospect.

But no matter where he is pitching, Papelbon, an analyst with the NESN broadcast crew since 2023, said he believes Buehler must continue progressing in every start if he wants to remain in the rotation.

“I don’t think he has a long rope,” Papelbon said. “There’s no question about that, because you’re getting to the point of the season where you can’t afford to have these starts where your starter goes out and pitches two [innings,] two-and-a-third, and then you waste your bullpen for the entire series. So the rope is definitely short for Walker Buehler.”

Dave Benson Dave Benson is a longtime writer with over three decades of experience in a variety of mediums, including 15 years covering high school, collegiate and minor league sports in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Dave is also a licensed English teacher and spent a few years teaching at the middle school level. More about Dave Benson