2021 Mets Report Card: Taijuan Walker, RHP

Player Data: Age: 29, B/T: S/R

Primary Stats: 30 G (29 starts), 159 IP, 4.47 ERA, 1.182 WHIP, 7-11, 146 K, 55 BB

Advanced Stats: 90 ERA+, 22.3 K%, 8.4 BB%, 4.54 xERA, 4.57 FIP, 4.47 xFIP, 1.4 fWAR, 0.5 bWAR

2021 salary: $10,000,000

Grade: C

2021 Review

Taijuan Walker was signed in the off-season to round out the back half of the Mets rotation. He got a two-year deal worth $20 million with a player option for a 3rd year attached to the deal.

Taijuan was coming off a 2020 season in which he only pitched 53.1 total innings in his first real action in two years after he had Tommy John surgery that basically took away his entire 2018 and 2019 seasons. Expectations were not extremely high for Walker in his first season with the Mets, but there were hopes that he’d be able to continue off his solid run with the Blue Jays at the end of the 2020 season, which saw him pitch 26.1 innings in six starts to the tune of a 1.37 ERA.

Walker started off hot in his first game as a Met, pitching six innings and only allowing two runs in the teams home opening win, the game most remembered though for Michael Conforto‘s walk-off HBP. This would carry on for the rest of the month of April as Taijuan quickly showed that he still had some juice left as he went 1-1 in the month with an ERA of 2.81 and 29 strikeouts in five appearances (four starts), also not allowing a single home run. Many took notice of this start and praised the Mets for the signing of what appeared to at least be a solid middle of the rotation guy that the team could trust behind Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman.

Little did anyone know thought that Walker was just getting started. His best month of the season was easily May as he went 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA, 26 strikeouts, and only one home run allowed in five starts. His only poor start of the month was his first as he allowed four runs to the Philadelphia Phillies, but the team would pull it out in the end to win that game 5-4.

After that performance, though, Walker followed it up with perhaps his best start of the entire season against the St. Louis Cardinals. In this game Walker would throw seven innings of one-hit ball in a dominating start. Walker allowed no earned runs, no walks and struck out eight batters. It was around this time that the praise for Walker started going from the fact he was a very solid signing to perhaps the steal of the winter.

Following that phenomenal start, Walker would go on to suffer a small injury that would leave him briefly on the injured list, but he bounced back to finish the month of May with a very good performance against the Braves. June would similarly be a very good month for Taijuan as he had his second best (and perhaps the last good) month of his season. In this month, Walker had another phenomenal performance, this time against the Chicago Cubs, that saw him go seven innings with only two runs allowed and 12 strikeouts, which set a new single game career high for the right-hander.

Overall, he would end June with a 2-2 record in five starts that saw a 3.26 ERA and a season best 33 strikeouts in the month. At this point, Walker was more than a middle of the rotation starter though, he was cementing himself as a legit top-3 starter who would’ve easily been the best starter on many other teams but was relegated to No. 2 or No. 3 status on the Mets due to Jacob deGrom’s brilliance and Marcus Stroman’s equally great start to the year.

July would prove to be the beginning of the the downfall for Walker, although it wasn’t immediately apparent. The first half of the month was solid for Taijuan, highlighted by his great Subway Series performance against the Yankees in which he carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before allowing his only two runs of the game. This start and his dominant first half of the season would lead to his first ever selection to an All-Star team.

Walker would be the Mets lone All-Star representative. Just a few days after being selected for the team, Taijuan would pitch in the game going a full inning, striking out one and allowing a solo homer in a solid performance that Walker admitted he was nervous about. Unfortunately this would be one of the last good moments of his season as the collapse would begin shortly after.

In Walker’s first post-All-Star Game start, things couldn’t have gone much worse. He went just a third of an inning, allowing five earned runs on four hits to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates. In the game, Walker swatted a fair ball into foul territory believing that it was foul, and this blunder would lead to the Pirates scoring an easy three runs. Things wouldn’t get much better for him as his next start against his former Blue Jays team would see him allow six earned runs on eight hits in just four innings of work.

He would finish this month with a 1-2 record in starts and an ERA of 9.00. In a way, this month was a representation of Walker’s entire season–a tale of two halves.

A noticeable sign that Walker was cooling off from his hot start was the six home runs he allowed in the month, especially after previously only allowed five in total for the first 3 months of the season.

August would then come and continue adding to this troublesome trend as Taijuan allowed another seven homers, really hammering it in that the long ball was becoming a major problem for him. August as whole though may have been a more accurate representation of what people expected of Walker when he signed with the team, which was a solid mid-rotation starter that would have his good games but occasionally falter. Taijuan would have two starts of over six innings and two or less runs allowed, but he also had two starts where he allowed at least four runs and six or more hits.

His final stat line for the month of August was 0-4 in 5 starts with a 4.15 ERA.

September wouldn’t change much as Walker again struggled to an 0-2 record with three starts of five or more runs allowed. In perhaps the lone bright spot of the month for him though, he would go on to pitch a great game in his last start of the season going 7.1 innings and only allowing two earned runs on two hits. It was vintage first-half Walker and hopefully something that he will be able to carry over to next season.

Taijuan would end the month with a 7.66 ERA and another eight home runs added to his season total which ended at 26.

Overall, it was a roller coaster of a season for Taijuan Walker, going from the highest of highs in him having the best first half of a season he’d ever had in his whole career and rightfully earning his first All-Star Game appearance, to the lowest of lows with him going 0-8 and allowing 20 home runs in the second half. Walker’s first half of the season would’ve earned him an A+ from me as he shattered all expectations and pitched at an All-Star level, but his second half of the season would’ve earned him an F grade as he was one of the worst starters statistically in the whole league. Because of this, I felt a grade of a C was the fairest thing to give him.

2022 Outlook

The Mets will surely be doing whatever they can this off season to try and help Taijuan replicate his stellar first half of the season. The hope is that Walker’s body wasn’t used to a full season due to not pitching this many innings in almost four years, and that with a full season under his belt he’ll be able to have greater consistency next season. Ideally, after this upcoming free agency, he’ll be able to slot back in as the Mets No. 3 or No. 4 starter to allow the team to manage his innings and not have him gas out as early.