Red Sox pay price Yankees never would have for Walker Buehler gamble

The Boston Red Sox have felt a few steps behind the New York Yankees this offseason, but they're doing their best to keep pace in annoying fashion. They made their latest splash on Monday right before the start of the holiday.

Walker Buehler ditched the LA Dodgers and signed a one-year, $21.05 million contract with the Red Sox, which equates the value of the 2025 qualifying offer. He'll join a loaded Boston rotation led by Garrett Crochet and Tanner Houck.

Though we'd argue Fenway Park isn't the best setting for a player like Buehler looking to rebuild his free agency value, the man is coming off a heater this past postseason and could be in line for a productive 2025, home ballpark be damned.

While it stings because Buehler was a Yankees target earlier this offseason, there was no chance the Yankees were taking a $21 million risk on the right-hander knowing what has happened from 2022-2024.

Don't forget, Yankee Stadium is also a hitter's ballpark, and New York needs reliability in their rotation with the amount of question marks currently in the fold. Buehler could have been a fit, but not at that price.

Yankees News: Walker Buehler signs with rival Red Sox in free agency

Here's the reality of the situation: Buehler might be out of the woods with his elbow troubles, but he's made just 28 starts the last three years, and the results have been bad. Before his 2022 season ended abruptly (and then knocked him out for all of 2023 and parts of 2024), Buehler logged just 12 starts and finished with a 4.02 ERA and 1.29 WHIP with just 58 strikeouts across 65 innings. He followed that up with a 5.38 ERA and 1.55 WHIP with 64 strikeouts in 16 starts (75 1/3 innings) in 2024.

Once upon a time, Buehler was carving out one of the most impressive resumes for a pitcher across his first four seasons. He was establishing himself as an October legend as well with his incredible run of postseason performances. The talent is there. And he just showed he could be on the right track after shutting out his opponents over his final 12 innings in this year's playoffs.

But the Yankees couldn't afford another toss-up in their rotation. They're already overpaying Marcus Stroman ($36.5 million owed through 2026) and Carlos Rodón ($27 million per year for four more seasons). Clarke Schmidt has proven to be unreliable to varying degrees. Gerrit Cole is coming off a concerning elbow issue. How much more can the Yankees get out of Luis Gil in his second full season?

As you can see, Buehler's presence would've further complicated matters, and it's not like he would have been an impactful enough signing to convince the Yankees to trade one of their arms to upgrade elsewhere. They'd need still all the help they can get.

Our guess is that Buehler ends up putting together a good enough 2025 campaign to rebuild his value, but it's very much up in the air, and it wasn't something the Yankees were going to gamble on at that price. They'll happily let their rival foot the bill while hoping they can get some World Series revenge on the right-hander.