Saturday night was a busy evening for the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system. Gage Wood made his professional debut in Clearwater and the newly signed veteran pitcher Walker Buehler made his first appearance since being signed by the club on Aug. 31 with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Buehler, a former top-of-the-rotation pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, struggled mightily in both starting and relief roles this season with the Boston Red Sox. The Phillies took a gamble on signing the veteran righty, but hope he can be a viable addition to the rotation as the regular season winds down.
His Phillies debut perhaps left something to be desired on Saturday evening, despite some defensive miscues.
Walker Buehler makes uninspiring Triple-A Lehigh Valley debut ahead of joining Phillies rotation
Buehler last pitched for the Red Sox on Aug. 24 prior to his outing on Saturday evening. There may have been some rust to shake off as the right-hander surrendered a home run to former Phillies prospect Hao-Yu Lee to start the contest, but he managed to work out of the first inning without further damage.
Overall, Buehler went on to throw 78 pitches — 47 for strikes — over three innings. He allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits and three walks. The positive was that the right-hander struck out five hitters.
Hao-Yu Lee leading us off with a solo HR 🔥 pic.twitter.com/K6OSsDeko2
— Toledo Mud Hens (@MudHens) September 6, 2025
The issue was that he threw too many balls and his defense cost him some pitches which drove him out of the game after just three frames.
Through much of the game, the veteran's fastball sat around 92-93 mph. A drop in velocity has been notable over the last year or so for Buehler. In comparison, during his best career season in 2021, his four-seamer averaged about 95.3 mph.
However, given his prior experience and track record, the Phillies' brass felt it was worth taking a flier on Buehler after he was released by Boston late last month. He’s lined up to make his first start in the Phillies’ rotation on Sept. 12.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski believes the Phillies can unlock some of the veteran pitcher's previous success, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.
"This year hasn’t been as good for him as some other years, but we still like a lot of his stuff,” Dombrowski said, per Feinsand. “We think we see some things that can hopefully help him. He’s willing to work with us.”
It remains to be seen as to whether or not he will bounce back to some semblance the pitcher he was in Los Angeles, but his career postseason resume is impressive. Buehler boasts a 3.04 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP in 94 2/3 postseason innings.
His debut with the organization did not instill a ton of confidence, but his experience can be valuable to a club that has deep postseason aspirations if he can display some command. Perhaps the Phillies can get Buehler back on track in time for him to take down some big innings in October.