Buehler smiled when asked if he has thought about being on the other side of the Padres-Dodgers rivalry.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll make the team first, and then try and get back into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only at the end of Buehler\u2019s time in blue was it actually a rivalry, in that the Dodgers won almost 70% of the games between the teams from 2018 through 2021.<\/p>\n
Those were Buehler\u2019s first four full seasons in the major leagues, and he went 6-0 with a 1.49 ERA in 10 starts against the Padres in that span. His first career start against them, in Monterrey, Mexico, he threw the first six innings of what would end up a combined no-hitter.<\/p>\n
Buehler did not face the Padres in 2022 before Tommy John surgery ended that season and caused him to miss the next.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he had one good start (one run in five innings) and one bad start (three runs in 3\u2153 innings) against the Padres. In all, he had a 1.80 ERA in 12 starts (75 innings) against them while pitching for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
The only Dodgers pitcher to have pitched at least 75 innings against the Padres and had a lower ERA than Buehler was Charlie Hough, who posted a 1.76 mark from 1971 to 1980.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcited to see what he\u2019s got and see him compete,\u201d Padres manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cAnd hopefully (he will) bring some of those good games that we saw him pitch against us \u2026 for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres don\u2019t know what to expect. They saw him throw twice this winter and were impressed enough (and in enough need) to take what is a virtually no-risk flier.<\/p>\n
If a guy who was one of the best pitchers in the major leagues five years ago but has mostly struggled in his return from a second Tommy John surgery can pitch well enough to make the team, he will have a base salary of $1.5 million. The most he can make, based on performance escalators included in his contract, is $4 million.<\/p>\n
Buehler averaged 95 mph on his fastball last season and, according to people who have seen him throw, is consistently hitting 93 mph now. Those who have seen him throw say he is commanding the fastball better than in the past couple of seasons.<\/p>\n
![\"Walker](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-SpringTraining-Day8-003.jpg\")
Walker Buehler and Joe Musgrove #44 of the San Diego Padres walk to the field during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz.(Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The velocity, down from his average of nearly 96 mph before his latest elbow surgery, is something the Padres believe could possibly tick up slightly with some mechanical adjustments. Moreover, they believe pitching coach Ruben Niebla can help Buehler with efficiency and consistency in his delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting the velocity back as well as the delivery has kind of been the big thing,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cAnd the second half of last year was relatively successful compared to the first half. And there\u2019s obviously some stuff we want to continue to build on there and get some of the velocity, the explosiveness \u2014 whatever you want to call it \u2014 back.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 201\u2153 innings with the Dodgers, Red Sox and Phillies since his 2024 return, Buehler has a 5.10 ERA and 1.53 WHIP, up from 3.02 and 1.04, respectively, through 2022. The troubling underlying numbers (besides his velocity) are a walk rate of 9.8% (up from 6.3% through \u201822), an 18% miss rate (down from 24% through \u201822) and a 17.2% strikeout rate (down from 27% through \u201822).<\/p>\n
After topping off his Dodgers career with six shutout innings in their 2024 World Series win over the Yankees, including a perfect ninth inning in the clinching victory, Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05 million deal with the Red Sox last offseason.<\/p>\n
He was released in late August after a brief move to the bullpen, having posted a 5.40 ERA over 22 starts (110 innings). In his third-to-last start for the Red Sox, he shut out the Padres over six innings at Petco Park. In three games (two starts) for the Phillies in September, Buehler allowed one run in 13\u2154 innings, even though most underlying numbers did not appreciably improve.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy elbow and my body (have) kind of been through some stuff,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cKind of took a different approach and moved out here for the offseason and got my body in a little bit better spot. I liked a lot of the stuff that I was kind of working on in Philadelphia, and I just didn\u2019t stop throwing and kind of kept working through some of that stuff. And I feel like the delivery is a lot closer to what it was kind of pre-\u201922.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres can hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 This was strange. Maybe not Steve Garvey strange. Probably closer to Mike Piazza strange. Regardless,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185,3546],"class_list":{"0":"post-578512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116089312307276694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}