The Los Angeles Dodgers and starting pitcher Walker Buehler reportedly agreed to an $8.025 million contract to avoid arbitration for the 2024 season, per Robert Murray of FanSided.

Buehler is one of baseball's best pitchers when healthy. He missed all of the 2023 season after previously undergoing his second Tommy John surgery. Buehler is hoping to stay healthy and perform well for a Dodgers team with extremely high expectations this season.

Can Walker Buehler still be elite?

Bouncing back from one Tommy John surgery is difficult enough. Doing it a second time will prove to be even more of a challenge.

The good news for Buehler is that he is still in the prime of his career. At 29-years old, the Dodgers are still confident in the ace. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman recently expressed his confidence in Buehler, via Bill Plunkett of ocregister.com.

“We’ll bet on him being really good next year,” Friedman said. “But it’s also not something that all of our hopes and dreams for 2024 are going to be resting on his shoulders.”

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Buehler will have plenty of help in 2024. The Dodgers' lineup is loaded, with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman ready to lead the charge. Pitching wise, LA has already drastically upgraded the rotation.

LA signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto and traded for Tyler Glasnow during this offseason. And the bullpen projects to still be reliable despite having some uncertainty.

So even if Buehler initially struggles after returning from Tommy John surgery, the Dodgers will have players ready to pick him up. But counting Buehler out is a risky thing to do.

He is a competitor on the mound and he is certainly ready to find his elite form once again.