In advance of Zack Wheeler’s Saturday return to the rotation, the Philadelphia Phillies have released struggling right-hander Taijuan Walker.
This season, across his four starts, one relief appearance, and 22 ⅔ innings, Walker allowed 25 runs, an MLB-leading 23 of them earned. The move comes in the final year of the four-year, $72 million contract Walker and the Phillies signed before the 2023 season. For 2026, Walker is owed the balance of an $18 million salary.
Taijuan Walker
PHI • SP • #99
ERA9.13
WHIP2.07
IP22.2
BB11
K17
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While the contract seemed quite reasonable at the time — Walker going into the 2023 season had an All-Star selection and a 3.89 career ERA over 163 starts and four relief appearances to his credit — it turned into a boondoggle from the club’s standpoint. Walker’s Phillies career ends with a 5.12 ERA and 5.38 FIP in 71 starts and 18 relief appearances. That’s good for a WAR of just 1.9 over parts of four seasons. Framed another way, the Phillies will wind up paying Walker roughly $36 million per win of WAR.
While Walker’s 2024 campaign was compromised by shoulder and finger problems, injuries weren’t really the driver in his Philly struggles. Now 33, Walker has been dealing with steady velocity loss since the 2021 season, and that perhaps should’ve given the Phillies pause. This season, Walker’s average fastball velocity was just 91.8 mph, which put him in the 16th percentile among MLB hurlers. At the same time, Walker, over the years, has gotten less and less plate-ward extension off the mound, which means his fastball has played even slower than it already is. Walker also lost his ability to strike out batters over roughly that same span, and his K% cratered since the start of the 2024 season.
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He’s tried to adjust, as Walker has mixed up his six-pitch repertoire differently over the years, and indeed he’s led with a different pitch in each of the last five seasons, including 2026. He’s also adjusted his arm slot at various points. The loss of velocity and spin, along with declining movement on his secondaries, however, just didn’t allow him to adapt.
The hope for the struggling Phillies is that, in essence, replacing Walker’s rotation innings with those of Wheeler, even with the uncertainties of coming off a baffling condition like thoracic outlet syndrome, will constitute a massive upgrade and help them gradually rise out of the massive early hole they’ve dug for themselves.
However that plays out, Walker’s roundly disappointing Philly tenure is at an end, which is probably best for both player and team at this point.
