Is it Time for the Philadelphia Phillies to Cut Bait on Taijuan Walker?

The Philadelphia Phillies needed another arm to add to their rotation after the 2022 season. It was a loaded starting pitcher free-agent class, but the Phillies were just a day removed from signing a big-name shortstop.

To save a bit of money, the Phillies stayed away from the top of the class. Instead, the Phillies signed Taijuan Walker to a four-year, $72 million contract.

Walker, 32, has had a rough tenure with the Phillies, to say the least.

In his first season with the club, Walker pitched to a 4.38 ERA across 172 2/3 innings with 138 strikeouts in 31 starts.

On the surface, this may not seem like the worst season for a back-end of the rotation starter. However, in 2023, Walker's salary was the seventh-highest on the team and the only pitcher that made more than Walker was Zack Wheeler .

Walker would not be used in the playoffs, and would even send out a less-than-cryptic tweet about it.

This season has been much worse for the 32-year-old pitcher. He has been on the injured list on two occasions that have held him to making only 12 starts. He has pitched to a 5.69 ERA with 51 strikeouts across 61 2/3 innings.

For those of you keeping score at home, that is an average of just over five innings per start.

His WHIP for the season sits at an unsightly 1.51, which ranks 248th out of all pitchers that have made a start this season.

Since his most recent return from the injured list, he has made two starts. He has allowed six earned runs in those starts on eight hits and six walks while striking out eight in 8 2/3 innings.

Both starts were virtually identical. The walks, hits, and runs were split evenly between the two, but Walker pitched 2/3 more of an inning in the latter while striking out two more batters in the former.

The Phillies would lose both of Walker's starts, the only two losses they would suffer on their six-game home stand.

After the first of the two starts, Walker was not holding back on calling out the team behind him to the media in his post-game press conference.

Rough seasons are nothing new to Walker. Now in his 12th Major League season, he has appeared in 30 games only twice, and his best seasons came in 2020 and 2022.

In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Walker pitched to a 2.70 ERA across 53 1/3 innings with 50 strikeouts in 11 starts. In 2022, Walker pitched to a 3.49 ERA across 157 1/3 innings with 132 strikeouts in 29 starts.

Now you may be wondering what those two seasons have in common. Well, they were both contract years.

After his 2020 campaign, Walker would sign a three-year, $23 million contract with the New York Mets. The third year was a player option, which Walker would decline, leading to his subsequent signing with the Phillies.

It's easy to see that Walker has not lived up to his contract from his surface-level stats alone, but what do the underlying metrics say?

Per Baseball Savant , Walker's 2023 was not great. The underlying metrics essentially back up the surface-level stats, and show that he was not a good pitcher.

So, how does it look for 2024?

It is much worse.

For context, red means good, and blue means bad. And there is a lot of blue.

While it could just be the injuries that Walker has been dealing with throughout the season, that is not a reason for the Phillies to deal with the abysmal performances every time he takes the mound.

So, the question remains, is it time for the Phillies to cut bait on Taijuan Walker?

The easy answer is, "yes."

Designate Walker for assignment and try to option him to Triple-A. If he accepts the assignment, great. If not, hope another team claims him on waivers. It is highly unlikely that a team is willing to take on his exorbitant contract, however, so the most likely scenario would see him cut altogether.

President of Baseball Operations David Dombrowski signed Walker, and if the Phillies do not cut the veteran, they will have to suffer through abysmal start after abysmal start when Walker does take the mound, and veiled shots at the organization when he does not.

Whether they do release the aging pitcher, or they do not, the Taijuan Walker signing has a fantastic chance of going down as the worst signing of the Dombrowski era.