NEW YORK — It’s worth remembering the 22 days that led the Philadelphia Phillies and Taijuan Walker to this moment, an embarrassing low for the veteran right-hander. The Phillies deemed him unfit for their rotation after his six-run start in late August. They replaced him with rookie Tyler Phillips, who surrendered six runs before he could record three outs. Then they tried Seth Johnson, new to the organization and near the end of his first full season since Tommy John surgery. The rookie gave up nine runs in 2 1/3 innings. They tabbed Kolby Allard, a well-traveled lefty who pitches to contact. He could not throw enough strikes against the New York Mets last weekend.
So, all paths led them back to Walker. It felt desperate. But the Phillies have decided there are bigger priorities. The fifth starter is a nuisance that will evaporate in October. Nevertheless, those 22 days should have colored manager Rob Thomson’s in-game decisions Thursday night inside a charged Citi Field.
The Mets clobbered Walker in the game’s first three innings. He served up three homers. He walked two. He had thrown 50 pitches and, somehow, the Phillies trailed by a mere run.
Thomson kept Walker in the game. Walker hit the first batter in the fourth inning, walked the next one, and remained on the mound. He fired a center-cut, belt-high 2-0 fastball to Francisco Alvarez, who crushed it 421 feet. It was one of the most uncompetitive pitches of the entire season.
A METEOR FROM ALVAREZ! ☄️
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— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) September 20, 2024
The Mets had seven runs. They won 10-6. Why did Walker go out for the fourth inning?
“Because,” Thomson said, “I’m not going to burn the bullpen.”
The Phillies have yet to seal the National League East. They can do it with two wins in the next three days against the Mets. They have earned the benefit of the doubt to this point because they are tied for the best record in baseball and, here in late September, most of their important pitchers feel fresh and effective.
Thomson has managed with aggression when the situation has dictated it. He did not view Thursday night as the time.
Walker unraveled too quickly in the fourth inning, Thomson said. Alvarez was going to be his last batter. “He had struck him out the last time,” Thomson said. “Poorly executed pitch and he hit it out.” But Walker faced two more batters after. He struck out Luisangel Acuña before Jose Iglesias reached on an infield single. Iglesias scored later in the inning with José Ruiz on the mound.
Thomson, when asked how to strike a balance between preserving his bullpen and taking a shot at winning a tight game, said: “It’s a case-by-case basis.” He did not want to use Orion Kerkering or Carlos Estévez if the Phillies trailed Thursday because that would have made them unavailable Friday.
“Every time we scored, they answered,” Thomson said. “So we’re constantly down.”
That influenced the pitching decisions. But, at the same time, Thomson said that a seventh-inning rally had him thinking. “I really felt like we were going to come back,” he said, “and win the game.” Maybe if the Phillies had opened the bullpen earlier, the deficit would have been manageable.
The Phillies are in a stretch of 13 games in 13 days. Thomson made his choice.
The wreckage might be meaningless and probably forgotten by everyone in 10 days. Everyone except Walker, whose place in the organization is best described as shaky. The Phillies need one more start from the fifth spot in the rotation before the season ends; it might be Walker. It might be Allard. It might be an opener with some bulk relievers afterward. It might be you.
Walker, who has two years and $36 million left on his deal, is authoring one of the worst seasons by a Phillies pitcher ever.
“It hasn’t been a good year for me,” Walker said. “That’s what it comes down to. I’ve been working hard and doing everything I need to do. The results just aren’t coming for me right now.”
His 6.91 ERA is the sixth-worst by a Phillie with 80 innings since the beginning of the 20th century. No one has had a higher ERA since 1930. That year, the 102-loss Phillies featured Les Sweetland (7.71 ERA), Hal Elliot (7.67) and Claude Willoughby (7.59). They pitched at the Baker Bowl, where it was 280 feet to the right-field fence.
But Walker’s season is historically bad beyond a Phillies-only context. He has allowed 24 homers in 82 innings this season. That is a staggering rate of 2.63 home runs per nine innings. Only five pitchers in baseball history have had a higher rate while logging 80 innings. None of those pitchers — David Hess (2019), Chris Young (2016), Roddery Muñoz (2024) and Ken Dixon (1987) — were signed to a contract like Walker’s.
He has a 7.18 ERA as a starter this season.
“I think we were expecting more, for sure,” Thomson said. “And I think he’s expected more of himself. For sure. But we keep working at it.”
“I mean, I think I just have to keep going,” Walker said. “It’s been a terrible season for me, but I’ve been working hard. And I feel like slowly the stuff is upticking. I just have to keep going, keep being confident and, hopefully, the results start coming.”
Soon, Walker will be relegated to the dugout — or as the last man in the postseason bullpen. It’s difficult to think the Phillies could trust him in any meaningful situation. But teams need someone as a mop-up man to save others from throwing.
He couldn’t even do that in Thursday’s loss.
“It’s frustrating,” Walker said, “because I really felt like today was the best I’ve felt all year.”
(Photo of Taijuan Walker: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
