Strong Taijuan Walker Outing Creates Even Scarier Phillies Pitching Staff

The Philadelphia Phillies brass might not have gotten to the point where they ever considered eating the money remaining on Taijuan Walker's contract by just cutting him loose, but if the fans had their choice in the matter, that would have been the case.

Instead, the team worked with the veteran pitcher on increasing his velocity over the winter, believing the lack of speed on his pitches is what caused the career-worst performance he had in 2024 with a 7.10 ERA and ERA+ of 57.

The Phillies might not have given up on Walker, but they didn't trust him to be their fifth starter.

Dave Dombrowski traded for Jesus Luzardo in a move that seemingly pushed Walker to the bullpen, but when Ranger Suarez had to begin the year on the injured list, that put the veteran right back into the rotation.

Philadelphia handed him the ball on Thursday with a chance to sweep the Colorado Rockies, and that was met with tempered expectations coming off last season with some spotty moments during spring training.

But Walker was brilliant in his first outing of the year.

He pitched six scoreless innings where he gave up just three hits, recording his first win of the campaign by pounding the strike zone and trusting his defense to get outs behind him by only issuing one walk.

That's the type of performance the Phillies thought they'd be getting when they handed him the four-year, $72 million contract ahead of the 2023 season.

It hasn't worked out that way during the first half of the deal, but he has a chance to turn things around if he can keep pitching like this.

When Suarez comes back, Walker will likely get moved into the bullpen.

But that doesn't mean his impact won't be felt when that occurs.

One of the biggest issues Philadelphia faced last year during the playoffs was their lack of long reliever, someone who could have been called upon to pitch multiple innings that would have prevented the relief staff from getting burnt through early in a series.

It's too early to declare Walker can be that guy.

After all, this was just one outing after an entire year of poor performances that cost the Phillies multiple games throughout the 2024 campaign, so he'll have to keep delivering these types of performances if he's going to be trusted when it matters the most.

However, this was a good step in the right direction, and if this is the version of the veteran pitcher that Philadelphia will get going forward, all of a sudden their pitching staff has become that much scarier to face for every team in Major League Baseball.

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