Dodgers’ Walker Buehler Reveals Goal for ‘Last Stage of Rehab’
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler continues to progress through his throwing rehab as he works to get back on the mound for the Dodgers. Buehler has not pitched in a major league game since June 2022, when he tore the UCL in his right elbow.
Since restarting his rehab in 2024, Buehleris making great steps toward coming back. He has recently completed two starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City. He looked strong in his second start, allowing zero runs and striking out six hitters across 4.2 innings. Buehler is expected to make at least one more minor league rehab start before making the leap to the majors.
Buehler also shared an update on how he’s feeling and what his mindset looks like as he gets closer to his return.
“I’m trying to re-establish what normal is,” Buehler said on the Just Baseball Fans Show. “For right now, consistent is good enough for me.”
Even though the results of his last start looked flawless on paper, Buehler said there’s still an important box to check off.
“Specifically right now there’s some stuff with my right leg, and how it’s working, an the directionality of it for me that we’re hoping helps me rotate a little bit harder and cleaner. A lot of guys are very leveragey when they throw, they kind of get over their front foot a lot and bend over their front foot. That’s never really how I’ve thrown. A lot of people would say that’s probably safer, or more prototypical to do that. I’m kind of now trying to bust out of the safe zone and get to where I can perform at a high level. I get to where there’s inherent risk in trying to push, trying to throw 98. Getting out of that rehab mindset and into ‘I’ve got to go perform,’ the little-bit-scary moves that I have to do to really do that, is kind of that last stage of rehab.”
— Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, via the Just Baseball Fans Show
Thanks to this progress, Buehler could return to the Dodgers’ starting rotation soon. When he’s ready, he’ll join Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Bobby Miller, James Paxton and Gavin Stone to try and bolster a strong rotation.
Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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Great for news, Walker. But as former Dodger Pedro Martinez said, “don’t throw as hard as you can. It may feel good at first but it is more important to be comfortable. Throw strikes with a little movement.” Mike Schmidt once added, ” All good major leaguers can hit a fastball. Its the curve ball, sinker and slider that keeps them off balance.” That is why two pitch pitchers are not very successful… Many a hot minor league prospect has failed at the major league level because they couldn’t hit the curve…