Mets' Taijuan Walker Named To All-Star Team For First-Time In Career

Following his latest outing on Friday night, Taijuan Walker found out that he had officially been named to the All-Star team as a replacement.

When the Mets signed Taijuan Walker to a two-year, $20 million deal last winter, they were hoping he would be a solid backend piece in their starting rotation.

However, he has proven to be the steal of the offseason, pitching like an ace with a 7-3 record, 2.50 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 90 innings in the first half of his 2021 campaign.

Now, he has officially been named to the All-Star team as a replacement, as manager Luis Rojas announced following Friday's 13-4 route of the Pirates.

“It’s finally starting to come and hit me now,” said Walker of his first All-Star nod. “Everyone’s texting me, my family’s texting me, so it’s really cool."

The 28-year-old also earned himself a $50,000 bonus for getting selected to the Midsummer Classic.

“Once I got to the big leagues, it’s always been a goal to be an All-Star, to be the best of the best and go out there and compete against the best and be around the best players in the league.”

Although Jacob deGrom was initially the Mets' lone All-Star chosen to the game when the rosters were announced last weekend, the ace heavily endorsed Walker to be added to the team, as did Rojas, who felt he more than deserved it.

“Jake’s the best pitcher in the league right now. For him to come out and publicly say I should be an All-Star, it meant a lot to me,” said Walker, who also lobbied for his teammates Marcus Stroman and Edwin Diaz to join him in Colorado.

As Walker went on to note, he is looking forward to watching Pete Alonso "win the Home Run Derby" at Coors Field on Monday night.

Believe it or not, the Mets were the only team to offer Walker a contract in free agency. And Walker has gone on to return the favor, allowing two runs or less in 12 of his 16 starts this season. He even leads the team with four starts of at least seven innings, while giving up one run or less, which is surprisingly one better than deGrom.

Walker has been a godsend in a Mets' rotation that has been missing Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard all year. And the right-hander is a big reason why the Mets' pitching staff has the third-best ERA in baseball at 3.36. 

His success has also helped the Amazins' (46-38) sit comfortably in first-place in the NL East since early-May.