Luis Rojas Continues Praise of Taijuan Walker’s Leadership

While speaking with reporters prior to the postponement of Monday night’s series opening game with the Philadelphia Phillies, Mets manager Luis Rojas was asked about numerous topics about his team both on and off the field.

One of the interesting questions of note Rojas was asked about was what newly acquired starting pitcher Taijuan Walker has brought to this team in terms of leadership. Rojas mentioned that despite being just 29-years old, Walker truly carries himself like a veteran of the game.

“He’s a good teammate. He’s a good leader. He wants everyone to do well out there, not only on the day’s he goes out there to pitch, those are valuable things. He’s brought that to the team and this organization. It’s a plus for us to have that in our rotation and pitching staff.” Rojas said.

Throughout spring training, Rojas offered some high praise of what Walker brings to this team both on and off the field. Despite being just a few months into his Mets tenure, Rojas added on Monday, that Walker hasn’t been afraid to make recommendations based off of his experiences elsewhere in his career, and is always talking about ways to help this team.

“A lot of the thing’s he says are team-based. He talks about the team, he talks about the guys, he talks from his experience.. There’s always recommendations, and he’s thinking as a team. That’s what you want to hear from these guys,” Rojas said.

Walker enjoyed an extremely successful first outing in the Mets’ home opener last Thursday against the Miami Marlins. The righty allowed two runs over six strong innings, struck out four, and his velocity was increased from year’s past in the team’s controversial walk-off 3-2 win.

Rojas said the uptick on the fastball was “really pleasant to see,” and he thought Walker’s secondary stuff was playing really nicely as well. The second-year skipper was encouraged with the start, and thinks that with Walker’s work-ethic there’s still upside left.

“He’s only 29-years old, still a young arm, and still a big kid. I think we can see really good years of him ahead right now just because of the way he does things.. He works so hard. You can think that he’s only going to get better because of how hard he works, his physical condition, and the things he’s done in the past,” Rojas said.

Walker takes the mound at Citi Field on Tuesday afternoon in Game 1 of the Mets’ doubleheader against Chase Anderson and the Philadelphia Phillies. If he can stay healthy and the increased velocity sticks, Walker could prove to be a steal for this Mets team on and off the field.