The Los Angeles Dodgers' quest for a World Series repeat was always going to include a 162-game regular season slog. And while LA is doing just fine at 36-24, it hasn't been the unrelenting buzzsaw some imagined when the team added Roki Sasaki and more to what was already a championship team.

ESPN's Jeff Passan seems to have anticipated exactly that, and with October in mind, suggested the Dodgers reunite with a starting pitcher with a playoff pedigree.

“The notion that the Dodgers were going to win 120 games was always fanciful,” he wrote on Tuesday. “They don't build their team for regular-season wins. They want to put together the most devastating 26-man squad for the postseason.”

Part of that devastating squad could be current Boston Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler, who has World Series rings with the 2020 and 2024 Dodgers.

“They saw last year what Buehler turns into in October,” Passan continued. “The four shutout innings against the Mets. Five more against the Yankees. And then the final three outs to lock down the World Series title.”

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Buehler has put up pedestrian numbers so far this year, pitching to a 4.44 ERA with 8.1 strikeouts per inning. As Passan noted, however, he has a knack for turning it on in October (10-3, 3.04 ERA in postseason career).

Passan also cautioned that any talk of a reunion would be contingent on Boston falling out of contention.

The Red Sox are currently 29-33, but just 4.5 games out of a playoff spot as of Tuesday. At some point, however, the Red Sox will need to ask themselves if going all-in on a team that might secure a Wild Card berth is worth passing up on the treasure trove that is the Dodgers' farm system.

“The Dodgers' farm system is so deep that they'll have their pick of players at the deadline,” Passan said of Boston. “But to bring in someone who knows their system, knows their culture and knows how to show up in the biggest moments is a fit that's almost too good to be true.”