It has been a little more than 30 days since Walker Buehler's return to the Los Angeles Dodgers was put on hold. He spent most of that time away from the organization, nursing a nagging hip injury and trying to get himself back on track while training at the Cressey Sports Performance, a private facility in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
He will take what he learned away from the club and put it to use on Friday when he starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Buehler did not look great in his eight starts. He struggled to execute his pitches consistently and posted an ERA of 5.84. Part of the issue was a hip injury that nearly caused him to miss his June 12 start against Texas. He received treatment but it lingered into the next start where he surrendered seven runs to Colorado.
“I had a hip problem,” Buehler said. “I think it’s kind of f—ed up that everyone assumed I didn’t have something.”
Instead of working within the organization, Buehler suggested he would do better apart from the Dodgers' staff.
“Obviously I trust Mark (Prior, the Dodgers' pitching coach) and Connor (McGuiness, the Dodgers' assistant pitching coach) and the performance guys here,” Buehler said. “I’ve trusted them with my career, and they’ve gone through this for years and years. Sometimes that second set of eyes is not a bad thing. The last thing I would want is for anyone to think it was any sort of indictment on the people that we have here. I just think it was simply like, I just felt like I needed to be somewhere else for a second.”
Buehler returned to Dodger Stadium on Monday, playing catch in the outfield while former Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt observed in street clothes. An extra pair of eyes never hurts.
Hopefully, his time away from the team helps him rediscover the pitcher he was before his second Tommy John surgery.
“I don’t necessarily think it was some sort of miracle pill,” Buehler said. “But I feel like I have a clearer path to what I want to be.”
