Right-hander Walker Buehler is guaranteed $21.05 million in his one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox and can earn an additional $2.5 million in performance bonuses based on starts.

Walker Buehler says he's made a pitch to longtime friend, free agent third baseman Alex Bregman, about playing for the Red Sox.

If Walker Buehler had hit free agency after, say, the 2021 season when he posted a 2.47 ERA over 33 starts with the Dodgers, he likely would have commanded one of the biggest contracts for a pitcher in baseball history. That wasn’t the case. The 30-year-old’s first foray into the open market came at a much-different point in his career.