NEW YORK (AP) — The Boston Red Sox are pulling Walker Buehler from their rotation and sending the struggling right-hander to the bullpen.
“It’s going to be his new role,” manager Alex Cora said Friday before the Red Sox continued a four-game series with the Yankees. “We’ll figure out how it goes, maybe one inning, multiple innings. Whatever it is, we don’t know yet.”
Buehler’s next scheduled start would have been the opener of a four-game series in Baltimore and the Red Sox did not immediately announce who would take his turn.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” Buehler said. “It’s the first time in my career that I’ve been in a situation like that, but at the end of the day the organization and to a lesser extent myself, kind of think it’s probably the right thing for our group and it gives me an opportunity to kind of reset in some ways.”
In his first season with the Red Sox after seven seasons with the Dodgers, Buehler is 7-7 with a 5.40 ERA in 22 starts and has allowed a career-worst 21 homers. He was 4-1 with a 4.28 ERA in his first six starts but is 3-6 with a 6.37 ERA over his last 16 outings. He also missed two weeks in May with bursitis in his pitching shoulder.
“He’s been very frustrated with the way he has pitched,” Cora said. “I still believe in him. He’s a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Buehler last started in Wednesday’s 11-inning loss to the Orioles and allowed two runs in four innings while throwing 75 pitches. It was the ninth time this season he did not complete five innings.
He also issued 54 walks in 110 innings this season for a career-high 4.4 walks per nine innings.
The Red Sox signed Buehler to a one-year, $21.05 million contract in December. The deal contains an additional $2.5 million in performance bonuses. The Red Sox also gave Buehler a $3.05 million signing bonus and includes a $25 million mutual option for 2026 with a $3 million buyout.
Buehler was 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA and pitched 75 1/3 innings in the 2024 regular season for the Dodgers after missing all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He helped the Dodgers win their second championship since 1988 by going 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA and pitched a perfect ninth for the save in Game 5 of the World Series against the Yankees.
Buehler’s only previous relief experience was eight appearances as a rookie in 2017. His last relief appearance was June 28, 2018 when he allowed a run in five innings after missing time with a rib injury.
A two-time All Star in 2019 and 2021, Buehler is 54-29 in 153 appearances. He finished fourth in voting for the NL Cy Young Award in 2021 after going 16-4 with a 2.47 ERA in 33 starts when he threw 207 2/3 innings.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Larry Fleisher, The Associated Press
