Buehler was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball when he was called up to the majors in September 2017, and he quickly developed into one of the league’s best starters.

The Vanderbilt product posted a 2.62 ERA in 137 ⅓ innings in his first full season and finished third in rookie of the year voting behind rising superstars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Juan Soto. He followed that with an All-Star campaign in 2019, and after a slightly down campaign in the COVID-affected 2020 season, Buehler posted the best year of his career in 2021.

Buehler finished fourth in the Cy Young voting — and had a good chance of winning it — after going 16-4 with a 2.47 ERA as the ace of a Dodgers team that won 106 games had.

In those four seasons from 2018 to 2021, Buehler posted an overall record of 39-13 and posted a 2.82 ERA over 564 innings. The only pitchers with as many innings and a better ERA over that span were Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer.

While his individual performances have declined compared to his peak in 2018-2021, Buehler is enjoying the peak of his career with a second World Series title with the Dodgers.

Forced to make his first career save in Game 5 of the World Series, Buehler delivered, throwing a flawless inning and striking out two batters to shut out the Yankees, just two days after throwing five scoreless innings to close Game 3 win.

While Los Angeles has experienced its fair share of postseason disappointments over the last decade, Buehler often delivered in October. The right-hander made four appearances in the Dodgers’ three World Series runs and pitched 19 innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits and striking out 24 batters.

Like many of baseball’s best players, Buehler’s pursuit of speed caught up with him in 2022 when he underwent Tommy John surgery for the second time (he also underwent the same surgery shortly after being drafted in 2015).

Surgery sidelined him for much of 2022 and all of 2023, and his return to the mound in 2024 was often rocky. He had appearances in which he was at his best (six shutout innings in his third game on May 18) and others that were disastrous (seven earned runs in four innings against the weak Rockies on June 18, after which he no longer made a pitch). for the Dodgers) en route to a 1-6 record with a 5.38 ERA.

For all his struggles in the regular season after injury, Buehler shined again in the playoffs. After a difficult first game against the Padres in the NLDS, he was untouchable the rest of the way, throwing ten scoreless innings in three appearances, striking out 13 batters and allowing just five hits.

Buehler is from Lexington, Kentucky, and is a big fan of horse racing. Buehler grew up attending races in the “Horse Capital of the World” and is a minority owner of Authentic, the Thoroughbred that won the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“I was the weird kid who brought BloodHorse, the Thoroughbred Times to my house,” Buehler said in 2023. “I read an Andy Beyer book as a kid, so that’s kind of how I got into it.” As a kid I was pretty good at picking horses. … I think growing up (in Kentucky) is a part of life and something we all kind of embrace and enjoy.”

It should come as no surprise that Buehler has heard many jokes about his last name, most commonly when people quote the roll call scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Buehler has been in on the jokes, going by the handle @buehlersdayoff on Twitter and wearing the nickname “Ferris” on the back of his uniform at Players Weekend 2018.

However, Buehler didn’t retire the jersey as he wasn’t back in the starting lineup that weekend – those were his days off.

Amin Touri can be reached at [email protected].