Phillies Announce Pitcher In Surprising Bullpen Move

The Phillies have seen enough of Taijuan Walker as a starter.

Taijuan Walker in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform looking sad with a tear drop coming from his eye as he’s been demoted from the rotation to the bullpen.

The Philadelphia Phillies got blown out by the Houston Astros on Wednesday. The terrible pitching performance by Taijuan Walker caused Phillies manager Rob Thompson to question Walker’s future in the rotation.

On Thursday the team announced that Walker would move to the bullpen as a long reliever, per The Athletic’s Matt Gelb. Tyler Phillips is likely to be called up from the minors to start in place of Walker on Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Astros jumped all over Walker on Wednesday. The 12-year veteran allowed six runs on 13 hits and one walk with no strikeouts in six innings of work. Houston broke the game open with five runs in the fourth inning. With the Astros’ Spencer Arrighetti dealing, the Phillies left Walker in an additional two innings to take some strain off the bullpen.

The Phillies remove Taijuan Walker from the rotation

Aug 13, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Taijuan Walker (99) throws a pitch against the Miami Marlins during the second inning at Citizens Bank Park.

Walker was an All-Star for the New York Mets in 2021. However, the 31-year-old righty has been awful this season. He’s now 3-6 with a 6.50 ERA, 1.642 WHIP and 6.8 K/9 in 70.2 innings for the Phillies.

As bad as the season has been, things have really spiraled out of control since he returned from the injured list on August 13. In his last four starts Walker is 0-4 with a 9.17 ERA. The Phillies have lost nine straight games started by Walker dating back to the end of May.

The decision to move the pitcher to the bullpen was complicated by the fact that Walker is in the second season of a four-year, $72 million contract. Nonetheless, the Phillies have aspirations of making a deep playoff run in 2024 and Walker has not performed well enough to remain in the rotation.

Philadelphia has a five game lead over the second-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East, entering play on Thursday. The team has the second best record in baseball and is number four in the most recent MLB Power Rankings.