ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
LOS ANGELES — As he neared the end of a 20-month-long rehabilitation from a second Tommy John surgery, Walker Buehler encountered one final obstacle he struggled to shake: adrenaline.
Channeling the adrenaline of pitching in a major league game, an important step in pronouncing himself ready to return, proved difficult for someone who had grown so accustomed to performing on baseball’s grandest stages. Buehler’s version of game environments was elusive.
“To be completely frank with you there’s not a whole lot of that for me [in the minor leagues],” he said. “I wish there was. I wish it was easier for me to get going. I wish it didn’t sound so like s—-y to stay that. But I think getting the adrenaline of pitching in the big leagues is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”
Buehler will finally get that chance Monday, when he makes his long-awaited return to the Dodgers’ rotation in a home start against the lowly Miami Marlins.
The road back was treacherous.
Buehler, who had his first Tommy John surgery shortly after he was drafted in 2015, then again in August of 2022, tried to come back for the stretch run of the 2023 season but essentially ran out of time. He began another rehab assignment near the end of this past March and wound up requiring six starts.
Buehler’s third outing ended prematurely, when a comebacker struck his right middle finger and ended it after just 27 pitches, about 50 short of his goal. His next two starts saw him allow 11 hits and issue six walks in a stretch of 6⅔ innings, his command clearly lacking. His last start, though, saw progress. Buehler, a 29-year-old pending free agent, threw five scoreless innings in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, running his pitch count to 75. It marked the first time he had recorded 15 outs.
“Five innings is a big mark, I think, in terms of rehabbing to start games in the big leagues,” Buehler said before the start of the Dodgers’ homestand Friday. “If you can’t do that, it’s hard to say you’re ready. There’s always things I’m working on; I’ve kind of always been a tinkerer. Health-wise, I feel great now. It’s just kind of getting all the rhythm back.
“And I think — big league, big-game environment will definitely help me in terms of hopefully a little velocity but I think more than anything the tempo and the delivery works better when you’re amped up a little bit. I’m looking forward to that.”
When the world last saw Buehler, he was one of the most electric pitchers in the sport and also one of its best big-game performers. From 2018 to 2021, he went 39-13 with a 2.82 ERA and 620 strikeouts in 564 innings during the regular season. But his signature moments came in October, particularly 6⅔ scoreless innings in a tiebreaker game against the Colorado Rockies in 2018, seven shutouts in Game 3 of the ensuing World Series and, most notably, a stretch in which he allowed one run in 12 innings over the final two rounds of the 2020 playoffs, helping the Dodgers capture a championship.
What he will be now, in the wake of a second repair of his ulnar collateral ligament, is anybody’s guess. There isn’t much precedent for starting pitchers thriving after multiple Tommy John surgeries. The Dodgers will be careful with Buehler and will use what is essentially a six-man rotation to keep him fresh, but they have declined to set a strict innings limit for him this season.
“I think that’s gonna be open-ended or read and react,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when asked if he can ride Buehler in the rotation for the rest of the season without the need for a break before the playoffs. “Obviously his health is most important going forward. There could be a situation where from Monday onward he makes every start. There could be a time when he might need to take a blow. I don’t know. It’s gonna be contingent on how he’s feeling, for the most part.
“But how we kind of use rest and built-in starters and spot starts and things like that, I think we can manage the workload. But I don’t think anyone can say right now what that number [of innings] is.”
Skenes is coming off a dominant performance in his first season in the majors. The 22-year-old right-hander went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts for Pittsburgh in 2024, winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
The Pirates posted a video on social media on Saturday that showed Shelton informing Skenes of his decision.
In the video, Skenes walks into Shelton’s office and answers a couple questions about how his bullpen went and how he was feeling. Shelton later got up from behind his desk and informed Skenes he would be starting March 27 at Miami. He shook hands with Skenes and gave him a hug.
“Congrats, brother,” Shelton said to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft.
“Appreciate it,” Skenes responded.
The 22-year-old Skenes has been working on incorporating a cutter and a running two-seam fastball to go along with his blazing four-seam fastball.
The Ottawa Senators have opened up a nice gap as the first wild card, with 75 points and 26 regulation wins in 65 games. Beyond them, things get interesting.
If it comes down to the regulation-wins tiebreaker at season’s end, the Rangers have an upper hand over all the rest, with 29 in that column, compared with 23 for the Jackets, Red Wings and Bruins, and just 22 for the Habs.
The Canadiens host the Panthers also at 7 p.m. (NHL Network)
The Blue Jackets face the visiting Rangers also at 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
And if they have their sights set on catching the Senators, these clubs are all rooting for the Maple Leafs, who host Ottawa (7 p.m., ESPN+). It’s a great night for multiple streaming devices!
There is a lot of runway left until April 17, the final day of the regular season, and we’ll help you track it all with the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide details on all the playoff races, along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.
Points: 62 Regulation wins: 23 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 15 Points pace: 75.9 Next game: vs. WPG (Sunday) Playoff chances: ~0% Tragic number: 22
Points: 45 Regulation wins: 13 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 15 Points pace: 55.1 Next game: vs. WSH (Saturday) Playoff chances: ~0% Tragic number: 5
Race for the No. 1 pick
The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process are here. Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman for the OHL’s Erie Otters, is No. 1 on the draft board.
The Texas Rangers‘ pitching staff took another hit Friday, when right-hander Jon Gray suffered a right wrist fracture.
Gray was struck by a line drive from Colorado Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia to lead off the fourth inning that knocked him out of the game.
“Not good news, not good news,” manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. “It’s terrible. I feel awful for him, to be this close to getting the season going. It’s just not good news. I’ll get back in there and find out more, but right now, there is a fracture.”
Gray’s injury is the third setback for the Rangers rotation this week. The team said Thursday that left-hander Cody Bradford would start the season on the injured list because of soreness in his throwing elbow. Tyler Mahle had been scratched from a start with forearm soreness, but the right-hander returned to pitch in a minor league game Thursday.
Gray went 5-6 with a 4.47 ERA in 23 appearances (19 starts) for the Rangers last season, when he was shut down in September for a foot injury that required surgery. He is in the final year of a four-year, $56 million deal.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.