Phillies’ Taijuan Walker enters camp ‘on a mission’ as he faces an uncertain role in 2025
Owed $36 million over the next two years, Walker enters camp coming off a “really bad” 2024. He says he’s not focused on whether he starts or comes out of the bullpen.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — When camp opened Wednesday for Phillies pitchers and catchers, there was no one with more to prove than Taijuan Walker.
Walker, who has an unclear role on the roster this season despite two years and $36 million remaining on his contract, was in the first group of pitchers to throw an official bullpen session on reporting day.
“He looks like he’s on a mission,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said afterward. “And it looks like he worked extremely hard.”
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There weren’t many positives to be found in Walker’s 2024 season, when he posted career lows in practically every statistical category — 7.10 ERA, 1.721 WHIP, 2.6 home runs per nine innings — and ultimately was left off the Phillies playoff roster.
As Walker put it himself on Wednesday: “It was really bad.”
Eager to turn the page, Walker approached the offseason completely differently this year. He started throwing earlier after taking only about three weeks off and had ramped up to max effort by December.
“It was one of those things where the season was over and I just automatically started looking forward to next season,” said Walker, 32. “So I was able to flush it pretty quickly and just get started getting ready.”
Walker also followed a different daily routine and used weighted balls to build his velocity. So far, he’s seeing results. He said his fastball is around 91 to 92 mph.
“Especially at this time, [my fastball velocity is] not even close to what it’s been in past years,” Walker said. “Even when I had good velo a couple years ago, my bullpens had still been like 86, 88 [mph]. But this year, uptick a lot.”
During the 2022 season, just before the Phillies signed him to his current contract, Walker’s four-seam fastball averaged 92.8 mph. In 2024, it had fallen to 90.5 mph.
In addition to Walker’s velocity, Thomson and Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski pointed out Walker’s increased command during Wednesday’s session.
“He commanded his pitches on both sides of the plate away from a right-handed hitter, which was not an easy thing for him to do last year,” Dombrowski said.
Walker said his splitter, which had been his go-to pitch before he lost his feel for it last season, feels back to normal. He wants to focus on improving his slider to turn it into a more consistent swing-and-miss pitch. Walker had significant struggles with that area of his game in 2024, with his overall whiff rate of 16.7% ranking in the bottom 1% of all qualified MLB pitchers.
Even following a more intense offseason than he’s accustomed to, Walker isn’t concerned about going too hard too early.
“I just think being smart about it,” Walker said. “... I feel really good right now, and I think I’m in a good spot. So I feel like I can let it eat if I need to.”
After acquiring Jesús Luzardo from the Marlins in December, the Phillies seemingly have five rotation spots spoken for, which leaves Walker as the odd man out, barring injuries. Walker briefly spent time in a bullpen role last season after being removed from the rotation in late August, but Dombrowski said the Phillies plan to treat Walker as a starter this spring.
Walker isn’t getting caught up in the depth chart or where his future might lie.
“Honestly, I’m really just focused on doing what I can do,” Walker said. “Not really looking forward, looking at that at all, just really focused on my pitching, my command and stuff, and whatever happens, happens.”