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.

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.