His first two starts in his return from a second Tommy John surgery were a bit wobbly, but Walker Buehler, the notoriously demanding right-hander who can be as hard on himself as any major leaguer, didn’t seem to be growing overly impatient or frustrated with his performance, at least in the eyes of his manager.
“It takes time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Buehler, the erstwhile ace who had gone almost 23 months between big-league starts before his May 6 return. “What his ceiling is, we’re going to find out, but to get back to that 2019 or 2020 Walker … I think he understands it’s going to be a process.