Walker impressing Phils in camp: 'He's a different guy right now'

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Everything about Taijuan Walker looks different this spring.

The velocity is up. The command has improved. The movement is better. Even just standing on the mound, it's apparent he's bulked up a bit.

Perhaps most important, the results have certainly been there.

After a solid spring debut last Sunday, Walker cruised through three scoreless innings before serving up a fourth-inning homer in Saturday afternoon's 5-4 win over the Blue Jays at BayCare Ballpark. He finished the day with three strikeouts and zero walks while allowing just the one run over 3 1/3 innings. He threw 43 pitches, including 28 for strikes.

"I felt really good; everything felt good," Walker said. "Throwing strikes, which is key. Getting ground-ball outs, getting quick outs. Again, I feel like this is how I usually pitch when I'm my normal self -- quick outs, ground balls, just kind of pounding the zone."

Sure, it's only two starts -- in Spring Training, no less -- but the Phillies didn't see Walker's "normal self" at any point in 2024.

¡°If he does what he's doing right now,¡± manager Rob Thomson said, ¡°he's back.¡±

The 32-year-old righty missed a few days early in camp last year due to personal reasons. A right knee issue caused him to miss more time before a right shoulder injury landed him on the IL for the first month of the season.

Even when Walker was able to get on the mound last spring, it was apparent something was not right. His fastball averaged just 89.3 mph and maxed out at 90.2 mph.

On Saturday, it averaged 92.4 mph and topped out at 93.4 mph. That's after Walker sat at 92.9 mph and touched 93.9 mph in his spring debut.

Along with his velocity issues last spring (which carried into the regular season), Walker later completely lost the feel for his splitter -- his most effective pitch throughout his career -- to the point that he essentially just stopped throwing it.

Without an effective fastball or his splitter, Walker finished the year with a whiff rate of just 16.7%. It was not only the lowest mark of his career, but it was the third worst among 248 pitchers (minimum 500 opponent swings) across the Majors.

¡°He went through a tough time last year, he really did -- and I felt for him,¡± Thomson said. ¡°But to his credit, he got after it in the offseason, and he¡¯s a different guy right now.¡±

Walker induced five swings and misses on 20 Toronto swings, good for a whiff rate of 25%. That's a rate he reached just four times in 19 appearances last season.

And while Walker has never been a big swing-and-miss guy -- his career best whiff rate is 23.6% -- getting some whiffs is usually a sign that his all-important splitter is working.

Take, for example, Walker's third-inning matchup with Blue Jays first baseman Riley Tirotta. After starting Tirotta with a called strike on a curveball at the knees, Walker got Tirotta to chase an 86 mph splitter in the dirt before going above the zone with a 93 mph fastball that Tirotta couldn't catch up to for a three-pitch strikeout.

"Without having the extra velocity to get that swing and miss last year, when I tried to go up, it'd just be fouled off," Walker said. "But now, I'm getting that swing and miss with that up there, and with the splitters down below."

Of course, Walker still has a very long way to go to prove he's not the same guy who went 3-7 with a 7.10 ERA in 19 games (15 starts) last season. And even with two years and $36 million remaining on his four-year, $72 million contract, Walker is not guaranteed a spot on the Opening Day roster, let alone the rotation.

Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher S¨¢nchez and Ranger Su¨¢rez are locked into the top four spots. Newcomer Jes¨²s Luzardo is likely going to be the No. 5 starter, and top prospect Andrew Painter is expected to debut at some point this summer.

But the Phillies will almost certainly need more than five (or even six) starters this season. They used 12 last season and have used at least 10 starters in each of the past 10 seasons.

The last time Philadelphia went through a full season using no more than six starters was 1901.

¡°You¡¯ve got to have depth,¡± Thomson said. ¡°Knock on wood, we¡¯ve been pretty fortunate the last couple years, but it¡¯s always great to have depth.¡±