Taijuan

Walker

Everything is pretty much as expected here, as Kolby Allard got the last spot on the 12-man pitching staff. The Phillies would have loved to have gotten Spencer Turnbull back, but that’s not happening yet. Walker isn’t in the Phillies’ postseason plans after giving up 15 earned runs and striking out just six in 13 innings last month.

It’s Walker’s spot in the rotation, but he won’t get another opportunity to start after giving up eight runs to the Mets on Thursday. Either he or Kolby Allard could follow Banks in the contest, since Banks will likely pitch two innings at the most. One imagines Walker would have to turn in a couple of impressive performances over the next six days to have a shot of making the Phillies’ initial postseason roster.

Yikes. Walker looked good during his relief stint in his last appearance, but didn’t come close to matching that success in his start. He allowed four homers, and he also gave up three free passes on top of six hits with just two strikeouts. It’s safe to say the Phillies do not currently have a fifth starter right now. Fortunately for them that won’t matter in the postseason, but at this point it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if Walker is left off the playoff roster.

One encouraging outing was all it took. Walker had a great day in relief of Allard on Saturday, throwing three scoreless innings in what turned into a 6-4 win over the Mets. It’ll be his first start since he was dropped from the rotation with a 3-6 record and a 6.50 ERA at the end of August. He’s since allowed four earned runs and struck out two in eight innings as a reliever.

Walker came in after Kolby Allard was ineffective in his three innings, and did a nice job; even without picking up a strikeout. He allowed just three hit and kept Philadelphia in the game; allowing them to come back for a 6-4 win. Walker has been awful in 2024 with a 6.29 ERA and lost his rotation spot, but maybe this effort is enough to give him another shot with Allard, Tyler Phillips and Seth Johnson all not pitching well in their chances.

He’ll be a long man for now. No word on who is replacing him, but Tyler Phillips, who had a 5.30 ERA before being sent to Triple-A, would seem to be the favorite. Walker, whose velocity is down about two mph from where he was a couple of years ago, is 3-6 with a 6.50 ERA in 14 starts.

Walker was shelled for a whopping 13 hits, including a two-run homer by Yordan Alvarez, on a 96-degree afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. Unfortunately, he didn’t get any run support from Philadelphia’s offense to potentially bail him out. He also failed to record a strikeout for the first time this season in 14 starts. Not great. The 32-year-old veteran right-hander has been a non-factor this season for fantasy purposes and can be safely ignored when he faces the Blue Jays on Tuesday in a road tilt.

Sánchez was slated to face the Astros on Wednesday, but he’s switching spots with Taijuan Walker in order to get some extra rest. It’ll be a second straight start for Sánchez against Atlanta, as he gave up three runs over six innings in a loss last Thursday.

Walker’s velocity was up a tad tonight, so that’s something. The stuff still isn’t good enough to measure up with that of most MLB starters, so he needs to come up with some sort of wrinkle that will at least allow him to pitch four or five reasonable innings most times out. He’s not there now.

Simply put, Walker is not very good right now. He’s tinkered with hit pitch mix a lot this season to try and fight through his struggles and used his splitter as his primary pitch in this game. He threw it 16 times more than any other offering, but the Nationals hitter watched most go for balls and jumped on the few he threw in the strike zone. That put him behind in the count far too often to succeed and every at-bat felt like a battle. His next start is scheduled to come in Kansas City.