Phillies All-Star Pitcher Sidelined with Back Injury to Begin MLB Season

The Philadelphia Phillies will be without an All-Star pitcher for nearly a month to start the year.

Mar 4, 2025; Clearwater, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez (55) throws a pitch against the New York Yankees in the fifth inning during spring training at BayCare Ballpark. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

With the start of the regular season coming up for the Philadelphia Phillies, the team has recently seen a member of their starting rotation go down with an injury.

This winter, one of the top priorities for the Phillies was to improve the back end of their starting rotation.

The fifth starter spot held down by Taijuan Walker turned out to be a massive issue for the franchise with the former All-Star having a terrible season.

In the offseason, Philadelphia addressed this in a significant way with the addition of Jesus Luzardo from the Miami Marlins. The talented left-hander helped create one of the best starting rotations in baseball, and left Walker’s status up in the air.

However, a recent injury to starting pitcher Ranger Suarez has resulted in Walker coming back into the rotation to start the year.

Ranger Suárez will open the season on the IL.

Dave Dombrowski said if things continue to progress that Suárez “would pitch sometime in April.” But he needs to be built up again. “You’re talking three weeks or something at least.”

Taijuan Walker will be No. 5 starter.

— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) March 24, 2025

With Suarez seemingly out for several weeks, the Phillies will be hoping that the veteran right-hander can bounce back from an awful 2024 and pitch like he has in spring training.

The strong spring from the former All-Star was really encouraging to see for Philadelphia, and likely would have resulted in him in the majors even if Suarez wasn’t injured.

While the injury to the left-hander doesn’t appear to be significant, he will have to build back up his workload, which takes time.

For Suarez coming into a contract year, missing time isn't ideal for him. However, this could work out for the Phillies. If Walker pitches well, he could potentially be moved in a trade which was unthinkable last year.

There is no such thing as too much pitching and even though 2024 was a really poor year, Walker will have the chance to prove himself in 2025.