Yankees Rumors: NYY have 'mutual interest' with ace who just tilted World Series

Erase the particulars in your mind, for a second. Remove the previous uniform from your thoughts. Forget the lasting image of the most recent time the 2024 New York Yankees were together on a baseball field. If you strip the situation of all the details that might interfere with a 2025 marriage, Walker Buehler is the exact type of bounce-back pitcher the Yankees might be interested in acquiring, an experienced hurler with ace upside who might be available at half the cost on a one-year deal.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, he reached his ceiling in October instead of on the more ideal timeline of peaking in April 2025 in pinstripes.

It certainly feels odd to be talking about the man who just put the nail in last season's Yankees coffin as a genuine option for their '25 rotation, but according to MLB insider Jon Morosi, the Yankees and Buehler have displayed at least a degree of mutual interest in one another this offseason.

Now, take everything Morosi says with a grain of salt the size of Shohei Ohtani's airplane to Toronto. But still ... it's a tempting link, and one worth exploring.

Yankees Free Agency Target: New York, Walker Buehler have mutual interest

It seemed that Buehler's second Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in the summer of 2022, might be the final straw that permanently zapped his effectiveness. Before that season, he was a firebreathing ace set for a $200 million deal, poised to rival Corbin Burnes at the top of the market.

Then, he was forced into action when Dodgers hurler Max Scherzer refused to take the ball on short rest in the 2021 postseason, came back slightly sluggish the next season (4.02 ERA in 12 starts, 67 hits in 65 innings), and went under the knife to presumably solve his issues.

It didn't take; Buehler took longer than most to get back into his preferred rhythm, proving that Tommy John isn't quite the "assembly line" procedure that some fans believe it to be these days, even as it grows more commonplace. It's even tougher to regain command the second time around, and Buehler posted a 5.38 ERA in 16 starts, riding an untenable WHIP of 1.533. The whiffs disappeared. The magic was gone ... until Buehler surrendered that punch-in-the-mouth second inning in Game 3 of the 2024 NLDS against the Padres, capped by a two-run home run by Fernando Tatis Jr.

Ultimately, he battled through five innings, keeping the simmering bats silent for the remainder of the game. Then came four shutout against the Mets in the NLCS, five blazing innings against the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series and, of course, the famed save on short rest in Game 5.

Perhaps it was the postseason pressure that lit a fire under him. Maybe he knew he no longer had to manage his right arm, and had enough left in the tank to get through a three-week sprint, but nothing more. It's certainly possible his projected one-year, $15 million deal goes sour in 2025, but ... even when you're trying to save at the margins, there's no such thing as a bad one-year deal. If the Yankees could find some way to clear at least a portion of Marcus Stroman's casg, hoping for Buehler to match 75-80% of Burnes' production in search of a big-money deal elsewhere next offseason would be a perfect fit for both sides.

As long as they can each get the World Series taste out of their mouths.