Great News: Taijuan Walker will not start Thursday against the Atlanta Braves; Bad News: He will start Wednesday against the Houston Astros 

Great News! Phillies’ pitcher Taijuan Walker will NOT start on Thursday when the Phillies host the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park.

Bad News! Taijuan Walker will start on Wednesday against the Houston Astros instead.

Taijuan Walker: The Nightmare Continues

Taijuan Walker will start Wednesday against Houston — not Thursday against Atlanta. Cristopher Sanchez will start Thursday.

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) August 26, 2024

Absolutely ridiculous. The fact that the Phillies are even tinkering with the rotation in order to place Taijuan Walker in a position where he might not be total ass is ridiculous in itself. 

Walker is on a 4-year contract with nearly $52 million left to be paid, which to that point, the Phillies and Rob Thomson can tell you anything they want, but money owed clearly has a major factor in him getting a spot in the rotation. 

The ship has sailed on Taijuan Walker in Philadelphia and at this point, this guy is nothing more than a bad fifth starter who can eat innings and give the rest of the rotation rest. That will likely continue to happen given the Phillies lead in the NL East standings. Until that changes, Rob Thomson and company will likely continue to run Taijuan Walker into the ground which again, is only because they are paying him a ridiculous amount of money for absolutely nothing in return.

After starting the 2023 season year very strong, Taijuan Walker was pretty miserable down the stretch. On the year, he posted a 15-6 record with a 4.38 ERA over 31 starts but the majority of his success was found before the All-Star Break. The Phillies didn’t even consider Taijuan Walker in the postseason last year. He was unreliable and known for getting off to slow starts and also could not be trusted in a high-leverage situation out of the bullpen. 

2024 Spring Training didn’t help Walker’s case either. In fact, he was pretty miserable and while I wrote multiple times saying the Phillies are in trouble at the back half of the rotation, the majority of the readers here at The Liberty Line questioned my baseball knowledge and told me I was acting “dramatic” even after Walker put together a disastrous start against the Baltimore Orioles in which he coughed up five hits, seven runs, three walks and three home runs in just 2.3 innings of work down in Clearwater.

Go figure. Clearly, something was wrong with Walker. His fastball didn’t move from the 89-92mph range all Spring and back on March 9th, it was as low as 88-90mph. Soon after – he was heading to the 15-Day IL.

It’s either put Taijuan Walker in the rotation, DFA him, or let $52 waste away in the dugout. 

Walker went down with a “finger injury” back on June 21st and had been trying to get it to heal for nearly two months. He finally returned to the rotation in mid-August and shocking news to absolutely no one, pitched horribly yet again.

Friday night against the Kansas City Royals was simply icing on the cake for the train wreck that is Taijuan Walker. 

The game against the Royals was tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning. Walker surrendered five runs, giving the Royals a 6-1 lead and basically ending the game before it started. Walker allowed six hits and two home runs during that frame. 

He finished the day with six earned runs on eight hits and one walk with two strikeouts over three innings.

The Phillies lost the opener 7-4 before taking the next two to win the series.

In the bottom of the third inning on Friday night, Walker surrendered five runs, giving the Royals a 6-1 lead and basically ending the game before it started. Walker allowed six hits and two home runs during that frame. 

Taijuan Walker has a career-worst 6.26 ERA across his 13 starts. His ERA+ is horrendous, sitting 34 points below the league average. Over his last eight starts, Walker is 0-5 with a 7.11 ERA. He’s allowed 31 runs and 11 home runs over 38 innings pitched. The Phillies haven’t won a game that Taijuan Walker has pitched since May 22, 2024 – when he was pulled after throwing just 4.2 innings. 

Reminder: The Phillies are paying Taijuan Walker $18 million this year. He has deleted all of his social media and continues to lose baseball games any time he steps foot on the mound. 

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