Walker Buehler, who entered the season as the team’s best pitching prospect, was optioned to triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday to clear a roster spot for reliever Zac Rosscup, a left-hander who was claimed off waivers from Colorado on Wednesday.
It was not a performance-based demotion for Buehler, who is 4-2 with a 3.45 ERA in 11 games (10 of them starts) for the Dodgers, striking out 59 and walking 13 in 57 1/3 innings. It was a “workload” and “roster management” demotion, manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers want to cap Buehler, a hard-throwing 23-year-old who was a first-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2015, at 130-140 innings in his third professional season.