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Taijuan Walker ‘looks like he’s on a mission’ to start spring training. Can he bounce back to make Phillies roster?

Taijuan Walker had a strong first day of camp. (Grace Del Pizzo/Phillies Nation)

As pitchers and catchers reported for their first day of workouts at the Phillies’ training complex in Clearwater, Fla., Taijuan Walker drew praise for his first bullpen session of the spring. The veteran right-hander struggled massively in a 2024 season that saw his arsenal regress and his spot in the starting rotation taken away at points, leaving questions about where he fits into the picture in Philadelphia moving forward.

At the very least, Walker left the team’s president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson impressed with his progress since last season on Wednesday.

“He looked very good,” Thomson said in a press conference. “He commanded the baseball, both sides of the plate. He spun the ball very well. He looks like he’s on a mission, and it looks like he worked extremely hard.”

Walker, 32, joined the Phillies before the 2023 season on a four-year, $72 million contract and was effective in his first year with the team. He didn’t end up pitching in the postseason amid some difficulties in the early innings of his outings and the emergence of Cristopher Sánchez, but Walker did his job as a back-of-the-rotation starter, throwing 172 2/3 innings with a 4.38 ERA.

Last year, however, Walker’s production fell off a cliff as he lost speed on his fastball, his splitter didn’t fool hitters and he failed to hit his spots. He had a 7.10 ERA in 19 appearances, 15 of them as a starter. Walker started the season late due to shoulder soreness and later hit the injured list again with a blister issue. The Phillies tried to shuffle through fifth starters throughout the second half as Walker proved to be unreliable.

The club put Walker on a velocity program this offseason to help him try to get his fastball closer to where it used to be, and Dombrowski and Thomson both felt that he was throwing the ball harder to open camp. They were also pleased that he looked more athletic than he did in 2024.

“His velocity was very solid, much better today than it was at the beginning of last spring training by a great deal,” Dombrowski said. “Just his overall movements on the mound, command of the fastball, his delivery, I thought he looked so much smoother than he did last year.”

But even with improvements, Walker will almost surely not have a spot in the rotation once the regular season begins. The Phillies already had four established starters in Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Sánchez and Ranger Suárez and then traded for former Marlins left-hander Jesús Luzardo this offseason. Swingman Joe Ross is in the mix, and top prospect Andrew Painter is expected to come into play this summer. Never say never, but that makes for a crowded staff.

Maybe the best scenario for Walker — and perhaps the likeliest if he has a strong spring — would be for the righty to pitch well enough for another team to trade for him. A new opportunity could benefit both sides if the Phillies can get any sort of return in exchange for paying down a large portion of his contract. If not, Walker is probably competing this spring to earn the long-relief and mop-up role in the bullpen and avoid being removed from the roster.

“I hope that he pitches like the Taijuan Walker that we’ve seen in the past, and then we’ll have great problems and great conversations and we’ll see what ends up happening,” Dombrowski said. “… You never have too much pitching, so somehow I have a feeling we’d figure it out.”

Of course, one workout doesn’t mean a whole lot, so Walker will have a shot to keep showing what he can do this spring. Although it still seems like an uphill battle to make the team, a good first impression certainly can’t hurt.

“Good first day,” Dombrowski said, “but it’s the beginning of spring training.”