Buehler Is Back, and the Rotation Still Needs Every Arm It Has

Walker Buehler returns from paternity leave and slides back into a rotation that has been running short on options. With Giolito and Hoeing both on the 60-day IL and Jeremiah Estrada now on the 15-day, San Diego's starting depth has been thin enough that losing Buehler for even a few days felt like a real subtraction. He's back now, and at 11-7 with a 4.80 ERA across 36 starts, he's not the sharpest arm in the group — that's Michael King, who has logged 212 innings and been the clear workhorse of this staff — but he's a legitimate major-league starter, and those have been in short supply here.

The rotation picture heading into the final 36 games is essentially King, Buehler, and Randy Vásquez, with whatever the bullpen can patch together behind them. Vásquez has had a difficult year health-wise — his hospitalization earlier this season was the kind of scare that lingers — and his return to the rotation at all has been a minor story in itself. The three of them will need to hold things together long enough for the offense, which has been genuinely rolling lately, to do its part.

Buehler's return is a small piece of good news on a roster that has needed it. Nothing more than that, but nothing less either.