Dodgers’ Walker Buehler set to make first start since 2022 on Monday

The Los Angeles Dodgers are set to get some major help on the mound.

Walker Buehler will make his first MLB start since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022 on Monday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters following their victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

“The plan is Walker’s going to start on Monday,” Roberts said. “We’re excited about that. Everything checked out. It’ll be good.”

Monday’s start, which is against the Miami Marlins, will take place nearly two years after Buehler last took the mound for the Dodgers. His last start came on June 10, 2022, against the San Francisco Giants. He departed that game due to discomfort in his pitching elbow, later undergoing arthroscopic surgery to remove bone spurs.

However, Buehler wound up needing Tommy John surgery. He underwent an operation to replace the UCL and the flexor tendon in his pitching elbow in August 2022.

There was some hope that Buehler could return to the Dodgers before the end of the 2023 season. He made a two-inning minor league rehab appearance in September of last season, but the team shut him down for the year before he was set to make a second rehab outing.

The 2022 procedure was Buehler’s second Tommy John surgery. His first came in August 2015, two months after he was a first-round pick.

Buehler emerged as one of the game’s best pitchers in the years after that surgery. After making his MLB debut in 2018, Buehler earned two All-Star nods and played a pivotal role in Los Angeles’ run to win a World Series in 2020, posting a 1.80 ERA in five starts that postseason.

Buehler’s 2022 season was the worst in his five years as a big league starter, but he still went 6-3 with a 4.03 ERA in 12 starts before surgery. He made his last rehab start on Tuesday with Triple-A Oklahoma City, with his fastball reaching the mid-90s.

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Roberts expects Buehler to still be effective when he takes the big league mound again, just with a different approach.

“I think he’s going to still be Walker,” Roberts said. “He’s going to be attacking. But I think that there’s attacking with his entire repertoire — I think that in years past, it was heavy fastball, heavy cutter … I think that Walker has more weapons [now]. And I think that’s what my hope is, instead of just trying to bully guys. But again, he’s gonna do what he does.”

Buehler’s return is welcome news for a Dodgers rotation that’s been top-heavy through the first month of the season. Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have been worth the price tags Los Angeles gave them this offseason. Glasnow is 5-1 with a 2.72 ERA in his first seven starts, while Yamamoto extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings on Wednesday, improving his ERA to 1.64 since his first start.

Beyond those two, the Dodgers haven’t received much from their rotation. James Paxton has a 3.51 ERA but has only pitched 25.2 innings in five starts. Bobby Miller is on the injured list due to a shoulder injury and Gavin Stone has a 4.68 ERA through five starts.

The good news for the Dodgers is that more help should be coming even after Buehler’s return. Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May are expected to return from their injuries at some point in the middle of the season.