The Philadelphia Phillies don’t need Taijuan Walker to be elite. Though he’s owed $18 million in 2025 and 2026 to finish out the four-year/$72 million deal he signed in December 2022, this squad is not built around the soon-to-be 33-year-old righty.
Following his dreadful 2024 campaign, when Walker’s 7.10 ERA coincided with a garish WHIP of 1.721, he has rounded into form among the most reliable fifth starters in MLB. Following his one-run six-inning outing against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, the 13-year veteran’s ERA is down to 3.39, a career low for any season in which he’s made more than 11 starts.
He’s closer now than ever before to the pitcher Phillies president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, envisioned when he tendered Walker that contract. However, the $72 million man has found success in an unconventional fashion, a pathway that no one envisioned when he inked that deal.
Walker’s arsenal change
Walker came to the Phillies in 2023 with his primary weapon, the splitter, making up 28% of his arsenal. It was part of a six-pitch mix that included a four-seamer, slider, sinker, curve, and a cutter, the latter being his least-used pitch. In 2022, the right hander’s last truly successful season, batters hit only .195 off the splitter with a hard-hit rate of 40.8%. It was the second-most valuable splitter in baseball by Statcast run value, trailing only Tony Gonsolin.
By 2024, hitters were crushing the pitch, batting .380 against it with a 53.7% hard-hit rate. By a margin of more than double, it was the worst splitter in baseball at -16 Statcast run value. Over the course of two seasons, Walker had lost more than 2 mph of velocity on the pitch, though it maintained the same shape movement-wise.
Coming into 2025, he knew he would have to change his arsenal if he were to return to being an effective major league pitcher.
“I busted my butt in the offseason,” Walker said in an article by Paul Casella of MLB.com. “I wanted to come back this year and just show that I worked hard and I was ready to get back in the rotation.”
That hard work did pay off, but it wasn’t just labor that Walker put into getting stronger and throwing harder; he entirely revamped his arsenal over the off-season. In 2025, his primary pitch has been a cutter, which he now throws 31% of the time. His four-seamer, which he threw more often than the splitter in 2022, is now only seen by batters 9% of the time. Furthermore, the veteran now only shows his splitter 20% of the time, and when facing lefties, it’s once again become a devastating pitch when tunneled with his cutter.
A common scene for Walker this year has been a backdoor cutter to a left-handed hitter, freezing them and expanding the zone, before throwing the splitter low and outside, inducing a rollover to second base or a swing-and-miss. And despite his last name, Taijuan has only walked four batters over six starts since being inserted back into the rotation on July 8. Since that date, his ERA is 2.93 (24th in the majors).
“That’s the best stuff I’ve seen out of him in two years,” manager Rob Thomson said in an article by Anthony SanFilippo of On Pattison. “It’s really encouraging. I’m really happy for him.”
Despite the success Walker has had over 85 innings this year, this is some cause for concern. His FIP rests at 4.85, and he’s surrendered 11 home runs over his last 39.2 innings, not to mention the advanced stats like xwOBA that indicate he’s pitching no better than he did in 2023.
Of course, it’s foolish to put your faith entirely in analytics. They’re meant to predict what a player will do next, and often leave out pieces of a full story. The 32-year-old has had a good season, his ERA and the eye test tell us that with certainty.
There’s no guarantee Walker pitches for Philadelphia in the playoffs, but his job in getting the Phillies to the spot they are in right now, six games up on the second-place New York Mets, has been invaluable. No matter how his season ends, it is fair to say Taijuan has finally put in a year worthy of his contract.
(Top photo Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images)
