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Phillies Beginning Taijuan Walker Experiment After Call Up News

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Mike Ostrowski | Last updated Jun 1, 2025 1:45 PM ET

The Phillies are making another change to their starting rotation, promoting No. 8 prospect Mick Abel back to the big leagues.

Abel, who outdueled Paul Skenes by striking out nine Pittsburgh Pirates batters over six shutout innings in his MLB debut, will pitch again on Thursday at the Toronto Blue Jays. His call up means that veteran righty Taijuan Walker will be moving back to the bullpen.

It's not in his previous long-relief role though.

As reported by Matt Gelb of The Athletic, Walker will attempt to transition to being a single-inning reliever. With Philly's shortage of dependable bullpen arms, and the possibility of moving to a six-man rotation in the near future, it's an interesting attempt to make.

Bryce Harper expects to play Tuesday in Toronto. (Phillies are off tomorrow.) He’s feeling much better.

Mick Abel is starting Thursday. Taijuan Walker is going to the bullpen. He’ll be a one-inning reliever. Phillies want to try it.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) June 1, 2025

Before last season, Walker hadn't pitched out of the bullpen since 2014, when he was an up-and-comer with the Seattle Mariners. Now, it's apparent that he no longer has the stamina needed to consistently go deep into games.

That's not to discredit Walker's remarkable turnaround from last season. He's thrown to a 3.53 ERA and 1.36 WHIP across 43.1 innings, striking out 39 and walking 17. He's done so while changing his pitching style, throwing less fastballs and adding a slider to his splitter, sinker, and curve.

Those modifications have resulted in a slight uptick in velocity and chase rate, along with massive improvements to the amount of soft contact he induces.

The test now is to see if Walker can continue to do so on a much looser schedule, and, presumably, under much more intense situations. With even Matt Strahm struggling lately, leaving Orion Kerkering as the only shutdown option at the back end, Walker could find himself in close games... perhaps even in another save situation.

How he performs could have huge implications on the Phillies' trade deadline plans.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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