Taijuan Walker in Mets' Sights
Right-hander coming off impressive 2020 campaign
Image via Keith Allison
Following up on Mike Mayer’s report for Metsmerized from Tuesday, reports on Wednesday confirmed the New York Mets and right-hander Taijuan Walker have been in contact regarding a potential deal.
Mayer noted the 28-year-old is seeking a multi-year deal worth over $10 million per season.
Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet Canada provided an update on the situation, confirming that “conversations were ongoing” between Walker and the Mets and had “taken place as recently as late [Wednesday] afternoon”.
With a steep drop-off after the Mets’ front three in Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, and Carlos Carrasco, guys like Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto, Jerad Eickhoff, Sean Reid-Foley, David Peterson, and presumably Robert Gsellman head into camp competing for two spots in the rotation.
Mets skipper Luis Rojas spoke on the Mets’ rotational depth on Tuesday from Port St. Lucie.
“There’s several guys here that started games before. There’s a lot of strategy we can talk about,” he said. “We know how openers are being used. We’ll be open-minded about that.”
“We have guys here — Jake, always leading our staff — along with other guys who are gonna be part of that rotation. We have Cookie, we have Stroman — Lucchesi that we acquired, great acquisition. Peterson, the great year he had last year.”
“We have [Eickhoff]. We have Kilome, that’s a depth guy. [Reid-Foley], that’s been a starter before. We have a lot of guys that can be that potential depth starter for us and they can work to be part of our rotation.”
If brought in, Taijuan Walker could bridge that back-end gap more than sufficiently.
He’s coming off a strong 2020 season following an extended layoff post-Tommy John surgery in April 2018, pitching to a 2.70 ERA over 11 starts between Seattle and Toronto including a pristine six-start stretch to close out his season north of the border (1.03 HR/9, 25 strikeouts in 26.1 innings).
His 32.9% hard-hit rate in 2020 ranked n the 74th percentile among MLB starters and his .286 weighted on-base average against was the lowest output of his career.
Working off a four-seam, sinker, and changeup that spin on a very similar axis (picture 1:30 on a clock; that’s the direction the ball is spinning), Walker is able to goad hitters into cheating on a fastball, then drop his curve (mirror spin axis; 7:30) or splitter to finish the job.
Primarily a groundball pitcher (38.2 percent in 2020; 45.2 percent in 2018), Walker would likely benefit from the Mets’ defensively-upgraded infield.
A possible combination of Dominic Smith, Luis Guillorme, Francisco Lindor, and Jeff McNeil across the diamond on days Walker takes the hill (as well as Stroman or Carrasco, for that matter) would provide stellar gloves at every infield spot.
One would imagine that should increase those pitchers’ effectiveness. We shall see.
In any case, the added depth Taijuan Walker would bring to this Metsies’ rotation could end up being a godsend come midseason.
Once Noah Syndergaard returns and the Mets have one of the most dominant top-fours in recent memory (Dodgers? what the heck is a Dodger?) with a handful more capable arms vying for that fifth and final spot… hyperspeed.
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