When the Boston Red Sox signed Walker Buehler to a one-year deal, they were hoping that he would have a bounce-back season. The latter portion of his time with the Dodgers saw him struggle with injuries and inconsistencies, but there is no denying that he is a very valuable pitcher to have on one's roster when he is right. Unfortunately, he has been anything but right during his time in Boston.
After 23 appearances with the Red Sox this year, Buehler is the "proud" owner of a 5.45 ERA, and most observers thought that a transition to their bullpen was in his immediate future. Instead, the Red Sox shocked pretty much everyone on Friday by releasing Buehler altogether.
The Boston Red Sox released veteran right-hander Walker Buehler.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 29, 2025
Red Sox release Walker Buehler after failing to get him back on track
While it is understandable, given his performance this season, it is wild that Boston made this move with roster expansion coming in a couple of days. However, the Red Sox clearly didn't think he would help them in the rotation or the bullpen and decided to just rip the band-aid off now and not have to worry about planning their roster around his presence.
In being willing to eat what remained of the over $21 million deal Buehler signed for this season, the Red Sox are clearly signaling that they are about to do a bit of a radical overhaul of their roster at the start of September. They are currently leading the AL Wild Card race just ahead of the rival Yankees, and with Kyle Harrison and Payton Tolle now firmly in the mix for substantial starting innings down the stretch, now is as good a time as any to get the roster in peak shape for the playoff push.
That said, this is quite the bold move. The powers that be with the Red Sox truly hate wasting money (see: basically the entirety of the franchise's history the last decade), so the front office better be right about cutting bait with Buehler. If they make some noise in the playoffs, no one will fault them whatsoever. If they falter or, more importantly, their pitching depth gets exposed, there could be a rough start to the offseason coming up.