Okay, so I decided to really dig into this whole Walker Buehler contract situation the other day. Wasn’t really planned, just kinda happened. Saw some chatter online, folks arguing about his future with the Dodgers, especially after his surgery, and I got curious.
First off, I just did some basic searching. You know, typed stuff like “walker buehler current contract” and “buehler salary 2024” into the search bar. Found out pretty quick he signed that one-year deal to avoid arbitration for this season. Somewhere around $8 million, give or take. Okay, that seemed straightforward enough. Got that piece of info logged.
But that just got me thinking more. This guy’s coming off his second Tommy John surgery. Missed a whole lot of baseball. And he’s gonna be a free agent after this season, 2024. That’s the big question mark, right? What happens then? Does he get a massive deal? Does the injury scare teams off? Does he even stay with the Dodgers?
So, I went deeper. Started reading articles from beat writers, checking out fan forums – you know, the usual places you go when you’re trying to piece something together. Man, it was a mess of opinions. Seriously.
- Some people were absolutely convinced the Dodgers had to re-sign him. Talking like he’s a guaranteed ace, Cy Young contender, anchor of the rotation for years. Worth every penny, injury or not.
- Then you had the other side. Super cautious. Saying a second TJ is basically a death sentence for consistent top performance. Too much risk. Maybe a short, incentive-heavy deal, or just let him walk.
- Tried looking at comparisons to other pitchers who had TJ surgery, especially a second time. But honestly, it didn’t help much. Every situation felt different. Age, performance before injury, the team’s situation… it wasn’t apples to apples.
I probably spent a couple of hours just clicking around, reading takes, trying to see if there was some consensus forming. Felt like I was chasing my own tail half the time. Got kinda frustrated because there was no clear answer, just a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.
What I eventually landed on, after all that digging, was pretty simple, almost anticlimactic. It all comes down to how he actually performs this year. That’s it. Can he pitch a full season? Does he still have the velocity, the command, the stuff that made him elite? Does he stay healthy?
If he comes out firing, looks like the old Walker Buehler, then yeah, he’s probably getting paid big bucks next winter. Maybe by the Dodgers, maybe by someone else willing to gamble. If he struggles, or his velocity is down, or worse, he gets hurt again… then the whole conversation changes. Maybe he takes a one-year “prove it” deal somewhere cheap just to rebuild value.
So, basically, all that time I spent trying to figure out his contract situation just led me back to: “Wait and see.” It’s not like researching specs for a new gadget where you can find concrete numbers. This baseball stuff, especially with a major injury involved, is all about performance and projection. Felt a bit like I wasted an afternoon, but I guess I understand the uncertainty better now. It’s not a number you can just look up; it’s a story that still needs its ending written this season. Kind of annoying there isn’t a cleaner answer, but that’s sports, I suppose.
