10 free agents the Philadelphia Phillies should still be interested in
By David Esser
Taijuan Walker, SP
One of the younger starting pitchers still available on the open market, Taijuan Walker is one of those “low-risk/high-reward” type signings that smart teams make. He’s battled some pretty serious injuries the last couple of seasons, but bounced back in a big way in 2020. He recorded a 2.70 ERA across eleven starts with the Blue Jays and Mariners, and most importantly his fastball velocity returned to a respectable average of 93.2 MPH.
As I’m writing this, it looks like the Philadelphia Phillies fifth starting pitcher job is going to be handed to Vince Velasquez, which is like, not super ideal! The “Vinny Velo” experiment should’ve ended two years ago in all honesty, and it’s really hard for me to imagine a scenario where he finally breaks out in 2021, especially considering how bad he was in 2020.
Instead, the Phillies should take a chance on a guy like Walker. He’s only 28 years old, meaning he could have as many as 5-6 good years left in him. His injury history is definitely of concern, and he’ll likely be on an inning restriction in 2021, but that really shouldn’t matter to the Phillies.
They desperately need starting pitching depth, and Walker could end up turning into a solid longterm rotation piece should he have another strong year in 2021.