After a quiet December with very few moves from Perry Minasian and the Anaheim front office, Los Angeles could land Walker Buehler. In his updated free agent predictions, Robbie Hyde presented a strong case for Buehler ending up with the Angels.

Hyde thinks there’s still a scenario where the Angels might trade for or sign Walker Buehler at some point. “On to Walker Buehler, and I had him going to the Cardinals before as a reclamation project. Now, I wasn’t too far off on that since they did bring in Dustin May, but with that, I say he ends up going to the Angels. Now, he spent pretty much his whole career in LA with the Dodgers, and with the Angels snatching up low, high-reward candidates, I could see this, and maybe the new pitching coach Mike Maddox, who has a very good reputation, can help him get back on track,” he said in a recent episode of his podcast.

The Los Angeles Angels haven’t reached the playoffs since 2014 and their crosstown rivals are trying for a three-peat. This offseason feels especially important to them as the team tries to find a path back into postseason contention. With Mike Trout not getting any younger, the pressure is on the Angels to start making moves that put them back in the playoff picture.

To start with, pitching depth will be essential if the Angels want to make real progress.

As such, it looks increasingly likely that the Angels could be Buehler’s next landing spot. He moved on from the Dodgers after the 2024 season and signed with the Red Sox. In Boston, we saw Buehler made 23 appearances and put up an ERA of 5.45 over 112.1 innings of work for the team.

As the numbers insist, the stint didn’t work out as planned. Eventually, Boston released him and he was then picked up by the Phillies. There, Buehler proved that he still has something left to offer at the MLB level. Notably, he posted an ERA of 0.66 over 13.2 innings.

In free agency, interested teams, including the Angels, will have to carefully weigh the risk and reward, given how rough his time in Boston turned out. If the Angels seriously pursue Buehler, they may face stiff competition from the San Diego Padres in the process.

Walker Buehler may end up with the San Diego Padres

The Padres are set to lose several pitchers this offseason. They did manage to keep right-hander Michael King around for the next few years. However, they also suffered a major loss, with ace Dylan Cease departing for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Padres’ projected rotation for next season still looks thin. This is largely because Yu Darvish is expected to miss the entire year due to injury. That being the case, the Padres’ front office has been exploring ways to add multiple pitchers this offseason to solidify their rotation for the 2026 campaign.

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The Padres have been cautious with spending in recent years after their heavy splurge earlier in the decade. Yet, if they want to be truly competitive, the front office may have to loosen the purse strings and invest more in improving the roster.

One veteran arm the Padres could look at this winter is right-hander Walker Buehler. San Diego is familiar with Buehler from his days with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He could help bolster the team’s depth. His recent stint in Boston, however, was forgettable. That factor might affect his value on the free-agent market this winter. Still, the Padres could see him as a low-risk addition with the potential to make a big impact.