Article: Did Walker Buehler Call Out the Red Sox Coaching Staff?

[Alex Mayes]

Walker Buehler was looking forward to returning to Yankee Stadium on Friday, June 6. He was finally taking part in one of the biggest rivalries in baseball and had recent success in that stadium when he closed out the 2024 World Series for the Dodgers. While it was likely foolish to expect him to dominate one of the hottest lineups in the majors, most people expected him to at least put together a solid outing.

Things didn’t go as planned.

Buehler lasted two innings, just six outs. He gave up seven runs (five earned), seven hits, two strikeouts and two walks. He was his typical self after the game, using expletives to describe his performance and being traditionally hard on himself. Both of those things were warranted after how he’s performed since returning to the rotation following a stint on the injured list. There was something else in those comments that caught my attention, though. 

“I don’t want to dig too deep into it. Obviously, I’m throwing a lot of sliders. I’m throwing a lot of (the) two-seamer,” he said. “Those traditionally haven’t been what I do very often. And I think when the sweeper is never in the zone like it hasn’t been, the curveball’s gonna get hit more than it has, the cutter’s gonna get hit more than it has.”

This really feels like a thinly veiled shot at the pitching plan and coaching overall. It has been a common talking point during his recent starts that Buehler has swapped his traditional change-up for his slider, and he’s featuring a cutter almost as much as his traditional four-seam offering. Through those comments, it seems like there’s a directive from someone in the coaching staff, likely Andrew Bailey or Jason Varitek, to alter his pitch mix, and he’s unhappy with the decisions being made. If we look at the underlying numbers on these four pitches, we can see that he has a case to be made.

He’s thrown his four-seam 22.9% of the time, his cutter 17.3%, his slider 11.2%, and his change-up 9.4%. He’s getting more strikeouts on his change-up than the other three, the pitching sitting at a 23.8% strikeout rate. The change-up also holds the lowest walk rate of the three at a flat zero, though that's because his lacking command of the pitch means he refrains from throwing it on three-ball counts.

Where the numbers really support part of his argument is how opposing hitters are faring against each offering. His four-seamer has allowed a .323/.405/.710 slash line,, his cutter is at .406/.472/.688, his slider is at .304/.333/.348, and his change-up is at .263/.286/.263. When you look at that, you can start to agree with his complaints. He needs to be throwing his change-up more —  it’s been a trusted pitch of his for years and yields the lowest opposing production out of his offerings. The cutter is also getting annihilated, and the slider isn’t much better.

Buehler features one pitch that hasn’t gotten a ton of talk and it’s performing better than all of the other ones mentioned so far. His sinker has been lights out. He owns a 23.3% strikeout rate and is sitting on a .139/.279/.167 slash line against. It sits around the same velocity as his four-seamer — 93.6 mph for the sinker and 93.8 mph for the four-seamer — and it seems to be a pitch he trusts enough to throw 17% of the time. It stands to reason that bumping the usage of both the change-up and sinker up while decreasing the usage of the cutter and slider would benefit Buehler and the team as a whole. The game planning coordinator and pitching coach, Jason Varitek and Andrew Bailey respectively, seem to disagree though.

At the end of the day, Walker Buehler needs to continue to own his bad outings, but there’s blame to be placed on the game and pitching plans. It regularly feels like teams are adjusting to what the Red Sox are doing, while the Red Sox are standing pat on what they developed before the series started, even when it’s not been working. The Red Sox have entered the toughest stretch of their schedule so far, and if the coaching staff is unwilling to alter game plans when it’s obvious that the current plan isn’t working, then it’s going to be obvious sooner than later that the team has no hope of turning things around.

View full article

[jdc69]

I can't stand all this coaching and all these "experts." It overcomplicates everything and no one is accountable. If Buehler just played to his strengths and THEN doesnt do well, he KNOWS it's his fault and he can change THAT. 

I also heard that he didn't think his shoulder was all that bad for time off. I think that has alot to do with last night's struggles too.

[illinoisredsox]

Buehler isn’t a rookie; he came up in 2017 and spent 7 years with the Dodgers, a team that knows a thing or two about pitching.

He can change the game plan on his own.  

[Maxbialystock]

18 minutes ago, jdc69 said:

I can't stand all this coaching and all these "experts." It overcomplicates everything and no one is accountable. If Buehler just played to his strengths and THEN doesnt do well, he KNOWS it's his fault and he can change THAT. 

I also heard that he didn't think his shoulder was all that bad for time off. I think that has alot to do with last night's struggles too.

I like coaching and expertise, but not when they are in error, which seems to be the case.  

[Bellhorn04]

We now have stories on both sides of the ball about Red Sox coaches basically getting guys mixed up by the information they're getting.

Not what you want to hear! 

[jdc69]

2 hours ago, Maxbialystock said:

I like coaching and expertise, but not when they are in error, which seems to be the case.  

The error gets charged to the player (haha) though, not the coach, at least in the eyes of the public. And the player can't say anything.

[Old Red]

45 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

We now have stories on both sides of the ball about Red Sox coaches basically getting guys mixed up by the information they're getting.

Not what you want to hear! 

Remember Rice was told not talk to the hitters in ST, because it didn’t align with the Red Sox hitting philosophy.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

38 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Remember Rice was told not talk to the hitters in ST, because it didn’t align with the Red Sox hitting philosophy.

This is true. Like I posted previously, this current Sox organization is a clown car.

[illinoisredsox]

3 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

This is true. Like I posted previously, this current Sox organization is a clown car.

Also telling that it was the hitter who asked Rice a question, not Rice injecting himself into things.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

If you think back to both Price and Sale, the coaching staff under Cora not Farrell, started changing their normal approach to a game.  This is after Price won a Cy Young and Sale was outstanding for over a half decade.  Sale was specifically told that he should start the game with a lower velocity and then work up to top speed later in the game.  Sale's approach was to start at 98 and stay at 98 until he was tired and needed to come out.  There have not been elite pitchers who have gotten along with the coaching approaches under Cora.  Whether the bad suggestions came from coaches or Cora himself doesn't matter as much as the damage it's done to some of Boston's elite pitchers since 2018.  

When you can't bring great pitchers into the program and have them comfortable with the approach being used, it's hard for a GM to find the talent the team needs.  I'm just glad Crochet doesn't have any issues so far.  It may be that he's not stumbled yet, so they didn't feel the need to help him like Price and Sale.  

This front office and manager have been a clown car since Dombrowski left.  The franchise needs to give Breslow a chance to make it or fail with his own staff.  Clean house and let Breslow own the results.  Right now, things are really muddled.  

I watch each game and ask myself what is being accomplished right now?  We have a bunch of league average players starting so the future will be the greatest bench ever assembled.  If Mayer is up, he needs to be playing SS to see if he can handle it defensively.  He's a good enough hitter that he simply needs to learn how to make on the fly adjustments just like the other rookies.  Story needs to be a placeholder at 3B until Bregman returns.  Campbell needs to be full time at 2B so he can work through his issues without worrying about 1B or OF.  Duran, Rafaela and Anthony need to play the outfield if we are looking out for the best long-term interest of the ball club.  

The rest of Cora's bench guys that are starting need to go back to AAA except for 4 bench players: 

1 - Wong at catcher until we can find a better one (FYI  Teel got called up the other Day)

2 - ONE middle infielder (Story when Bregman returns)

3 - ONE corner infielder to back up Bregman and Casas in 2026

4 - ONE outfield back-up (Abreu he played all three positions in the minors nearly equally)

The roster only holds 13 hitters.  That's what Cora should be developing right now because this team DOES NOT have the talent to make the play-offs in 2025.

Breslow, on the other hand, should be finding money from the owners to start plugging the big holes we have for 2026.  The good news is Casas will be back and can get back on track hitting and fielding.

The bad news is, Buehler is gone in 2026 and needs to be replaced.  Houck is broken right now and for all we know it might be similar to issues that Buehler is having.  Bello looks like a long reliever at best.  Crawford needs to return to form in 2026 to be at the bottom of the rotation.

Bloom left multiple albatross contracts.  The move to DH has dramatically improved Devers' hitting making him less of an overpay than he was originally.  Now we just need for him to exceed both Cabrera's and Pujol's longevity.  Yoshida continues to be a complete waste of money.  He needs to be moved with other farm system talent that is blocked by players like Mayer and Campbell.  Paydowns hurt the available payroll, but futureless farm system players don't.  So, keep the integrity of the payroll whole and use replaceable farm system parts to entice the other teams to eat Yoshida's $18Million a year through 2027.

Story is making a lot of money and is quality depth.  Not many other contending teams have a middle infield back-up as good as Story so keeping him makes sense, especially since Mayer has been injury prone in the past.  As of today, we don't have a great corner infielder back-up for 2026.  Maybe one of the many bench guys that Cora is using to fill 1B and 3B right now could be the 2026 corner infielder back-up.  When Casas is back, the offense will have a nice upgrade when he gets back in the groove because he is a talented hitter.  If, however, Breslow was to go out and upgrade 1B with a better player than Casas we could keep Casas as the Corner Infielder back-up in 2026.  Abreu like Story is better than most teams have as their fourth outfielder.  That makes the Red Sox's roster highly competitive in 2026 with

Narvaez and back-up Wong

New 1B and Bregman 3B with Casas the Corner Infielder reserve

Campbell at 2B and Mayer at SS with Story as Middle infieler reserve

Duran, Rafaela, Anthony with Abreu the outfield reserve

Devers at DH

 

2025 is not the year but 2026 could be if EVERYTHING we do right now is to improve the starting roster for 2026.  Selling at the deadline, trading players like Yoshida as soon as he is cleared health-wise, find Farm System deals that can land better starting pitchers or relievers.  Breslow has lots to do before the trading deadline to set up 2026.  I really hope he gets to finally hire his own team of manager and coaches.  He needs to be accountable if 2026 isn't a significant upgrade from the last 5 years.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I'm not convinced Varitek is the coach to blame for game-planning starters to veer away from their pitching strengths.

When he caught World Champs and no-hitters, Tek's pitchers were stars because of fastball command, change-ups and splitters. The term "sweeper" didn't even exist.  

[Bellhorn04]

53 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I'm not convinced Varitek is the coach to blame for game-planning starters to veer away from their pitching strengths.

When he caught World Champs and no-hitters, Tek's pitchers were stars because of fastball command, change-ups and splitters. The term "sweeper" didn't even exist.  

Last year we got heavy coverage of Bailey's methodology of analyzing data on which pitches were yielding the best and worst results for each pitcher and getting them to alter their pitch mix accordingly.  It appeared to result in great early success that didn't last very long at all, presumably because opposing offenses quickly adjusted. Which brings into question whether Bailey's methodology works at all.  When you see an accomplished veteran like Buehler talking like this it's especially concerning.

[Kimmi]

On 6/8/2025 at 8:45 AM, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I'm not convinced Varitek is the coach to blame for game-planning starters to veer away from their pitching strengths.

When he caught World Champs and no-hitters, Tek's pitchers were stars because of fastball command, change-ups and splitters. The term "sweeper" didn't even exist.  

When he was playing, Varitek was the master at being able to change the game plan during the game, even in the first or second innings.  I would imagine that he would still be doing this for his pitchers and catchers, even though he's not actually catching.

[illinoisredsox]

2 hours ago, Kimmi said:

When he was playing, Varitek was the master at being able to change the game plan during the game, even in the first or second innings.  I would imagine that he would still be doing this for his pitchers and catchers, even though he's not actually catching.

Only if Bailey allows him to.

[mvp 78]

12 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

Only if Bailey allows him to.

And up to the pitchers' ability too. 

[Kimmi]

On 6/9/2025 at 7:29 PM, illinoisredsox said:

Only if Bailey allows him to.

I hope it would be a collaborative effort among coaches and not a situation in which they are butting heads.  Isn't that Varitek's official role, though?  Game Planning Coordinator.

[Kimmi]

On 6/10/2025 at 8:07 AM, mvp 78 said:

And up to the pitchers' ability too. 

Varitek would not call for something that is out of the pitcher's ability or comfort level.  He was also very good at coaxing a pitcher through 5 or 6 innings when it looked like the pitcher had nothing and would be out of the game by the 3rd inning.

[mvp 78]

36 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

Varitek would not call for something that is out of the pitcher's ability or comfort level.  He was also very good at coaxing a pitcher through 5 or 6 innings when it looked like the pitcher had nothing and would be out of the game by the 3rd inning.

We have no idea how good of a coach Tek really is. Good catcher. Coach?

[illinoisredsox]

54 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I hope it would be a collaborative effort among coaches and not a situation in which they are butting heads.  Isn't that Varitek's official role, though?  Game Planning Coordinator.

 

52 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

Varitek would not call for something that is out of the pitcher's ability or comfort level.  He was also very good at coaxing a pitcher through 5 or 6 innings when it looked like the pitcher had nothing and would be out of the game by the 3rd inning.

I agree with both your points, but right now, they seem wedded to sticking to the game plan and no variance allowed.  Bello is almost always fastball, fastball then 3 off speed pitches.  That actually seems to be a pattern with all pitchers not named Crochet.

Varitek the catcher would see what a guy had and adapt the game plan on the fly.  That doesn’t seem to be happening now, which is why I think perhaps Bailey won’t allow adjustment as the game goes on.

[Kimmi]

22 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

We have no idea how good of a coach Tek really is. Good catcher. Coach?

 

22 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

 

I agree with both your points, but right now, they seem wedded to sticking to the game plan and no variance allowed.  Bello is almost always fastball, fastball then 3 off speed pitches.  That actually seems to be a pattern with all pitchers not named Crochet.

Varitek the catcher would see what a guy had and adapt the game plan on the fly.  That doesn’t seem to be happening now, which is why I think perhaps Bailey won’t allow adjustment as the game goes on.

Fair enough on all counts.  You can read a lot more about what's going on with both the pitcher and the batter when you're behind the plate than when you're sitting in the dugout.

Obviously, I don't know either Bailey or Varitek personally, but I tend to think that both are very intelligent in terms of what they do as coaches.  It would behoove them to be on the same page in terms of game planning.