Walker Buehler cracks Padres roster but ends spring on note Dodgers fans know well

It would've been easier to root for Walker Buehler's success if he'd gone to anyone but the Padres. Even the Giants or Yankees would've been a softer blow to Dodgers fans than what he did: taking a minor league deal with LA's greatest rivals of the last few years.

Buehler said that he went to the Padres because they offered the greatest opportunity for him to get back to pitching in a major league rotation. Dave Roberts said that it was just good to see him get a shot somewhere. But fans haven't been willing to be that generous.

With Joe Musgrove set to start the season on the IL, Padres manager Craig Stammen confirmed on Monday that Buehler will be on their Opening Day roster.

But given Buehler's blowup just the day before, it seems like he only eked on because San Diego is stuck between a rock and hard a place.

In his fourth and final start of spring training on Sunday, Buehler gave up seven earned runs on 11 hits in just 3 1/3 innings against the Diamondbacks. Four of those hits were home runs.

Ah, yes. There's the Buehler that Dodgers fans got to know back in 2024.

Walker Buehler implodes against Diamondbacks before cracking Padres' Opening Day roster

If Musgrove had stayed healthy, it's unlikely that Buehler would've made the rotation, even with Yu Darvish's future unclear (as usual).

Buehler looked fine but not great through his first two starts — 3 and 3 2/3 innings against the Mariners and Angels when he gave up two runs apiece — before bouncing back very well against the Giants with five scoreless and seven strikeouts. And then he got blown up by the Diamondbacks.

This is exactly what Dodgers fans saw from Buehler in his last year in LA. He would pitch five or six one-run innings, and then turn around and do something like give up four in three innings. That volatility was what forced us to accept that the Dodgers were better off letting him walk after 2024.

Spring training is the time to make mistakes and work out kinks, but this all just feels very familiar to Dodgers fans who watched Buehler's decline in real time. He's just not the pitcher that he used to be, and while an Opening Day spot might help him keep his career alive past this year, it's getting harder to believe he's ever going to regain that spark again.