The Dodgers continue to wait for right-hander Walker Buehler to make his return to the major leagues. Buehler is coming off his second Tommy John surgery of his career, missing the entire 2023 season.

The former ace has been making a few rehab starts while he makes his way back. However, they haven’t gone the way he or the team would have hoped. Buehler struggled in his most recent outing, lasting just 2.2 innings while throwing 68 pitches.

Speaking pregame with reporters the following day, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that he was “anxious” to talk to Buehler about the outing, given how competitive the right-hander is:

Buehler hasn’t pitched much since his injury occurred so there will be some growing pains. Before his injury, Buehler had turned himself into one of the best pitchers in the entire league. He’s hoping he can get back to that level.

While Roberts hasn’t been overly impressed with the recent outings from Buehler, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has tried to look more on the positive side of things.

“But the most important thing for us, watching a guy on rehab, is where’s their stuff and execution. Just looking at the box score (Thursday) night, I assumed the execution was poor. Watching it, it was way better than that and the stuff is in a really good place. Those are the two most important factors that we look at with a guy on rehab and I would say he checked both those boxes.”

While the team waits for Buehler, they have also dealt with injuries to some of their other starters, such as right-hander Bobby Miller. Losing Miller does hurt the Dodgers’ rotation depth, but Roberts has already said that they won’t rush Buehler back to replace him.

The day Buehler finally steps back onto a major league mound will be a special moment. He will make his next rehab start this Wednesday, possibly his last before returning. The organization has waited for it since he first got hurt. All Buehler wants is to contribute his part to helping Los Angeles go for another title.