Among the names linked to the Braves this offseason is 2024 World Series champion Walker Buehler. The former ace of the Dodgers staff has had a rough go of it since returning from Tommy John surgery, posting a 5.38 ERA over 75.1 regular season innings this year. But he may have made himself a lot of money with his performance in the postseason, tossing 10.0 scoreless innings between the NLCS and World Series, including the final three outs of the MLB season, leading the Dodgers to a victory over the Yankees in five games.
While Los Angeles is all Buehler has ever known over his seven-year career, it looks as if that’s about to change. The Dodgers inked two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell to a five-year contract last night, and they are expecting a slew of other talented arms to return from injury, including All-Stars Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. The writing appears to be on the wall, and even top MLB insider Ken Rosenthal does not expect to see Buehler in Dodger blue next season.
“I don’t expect Walker Buehler to be back, but I do expect Teoscar Hernández to be back,” Ken Rosenthal said Wednesday on Foul Territory.Â
With the way the starting pitching market is shaking out, the idea of the Braves landing a top arm like Max Fried feels like a pipe dream. Alex Anthopoulos has never handed out a free agent contract north of $65 million since taking over as general manager in 2017. That will change eventually, but expecting him to all of a sudden fork over close to $200 million for one arm is wishful thinking.
What’s much more likely is the Braves taking some gambles on a couple undervalued arms that come with significant risk but also massive upside. Just like they did last offseason with Chris Sale and Reynaldo Lopez, both of whom turned in All-Star campaigns, with Sale winning his first ever Cy Young award. No pitcher in this year’s free agent class fits that description better than Walker Buehler.
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Photo: Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire
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