March 24: Walker told reporters (including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com) this afternoon that he was diagnosed with a shoulder impingement. He’ll begin the season on the injured list, though he added that rest is the only treatment required and that he hopes his stay on the shelf will be a short one.
March 23: Phillies right-hander Taijuan Walker was scratched from his recent spring start due to shoulder stiffness, manager Rob Thomson told reporters today (including Matt Gelb of The Athletic). Gelb notes that right-hander Spencer Turnbull figures to open the season in the club’s rotation if Walker begins the season on the injured list. Walker isn’t the only Phillies pitcher dealing with injury troubles, as Todd Zolecki of MLB.com adds that right-hander Orion Kerkering is will begin the season on the injured list after missing time this spring due to illness.
The twin injury updates are tough news for Phillies fans. Walker was a solid back-of-the-rotation starter for the club last year with a roughly league average 4.38 ERA and 4.53 FIP, though he was durable enough to make 31 starts for the club last year and post 172 2/3 innings of work. Now, it seems likely that Walker will miss at least the first few weeks of the regular season, though it’s difficult to say how severe his injury is barring further updates from the Phillies.
Taking Walker’s place in the rotation should he begin the season on the shelf figures to be Turnbull, a former second-round pick who spent four years as a mid-to-back of the rotation starter with the Tigers. From his big league debut through the 2021 season, Turnbull posted a solid 4.25 ERA with an even strong 3.63 FIP. He was limited to just 54 appearances across those four seasons by injuries, however, including Tommy John surgery which limited him to nine starts in 2021 and sidelined him for the entire 2022 season.
Injury woes persisted through his return to the mound in 2023, as Turnbull struggled to a 7.26 ERA and 5.55 FIP across seven starts in the big leagues while battling neck and foot issues that caused a dispute regarding service time between Turnbull and the Tigers. Detroit eventually non-tendered Turnbull, at which point he signed with the Phillies on a big league deal. Turnbull appeared poised to begin the season as a long relief option out of the club’s bullpen, though he’s spent most of his career as a starter to this point and should have minimal trouble adjusting to the change in plans.
As for Kerkering, the soon-to-be 23-year-old right-hander made his major league debut last season, allowing one run in three innings of work while striking out six of the fourteen batters he faced. That impressive cup of coffee earned Kerkering a role on the postseason roster in Philadelphia. He pitched 5 1/3 innings of work during the postseason against the Marlins, Braves, and Diamondbacks, putting together a 3.38 ERA while striking out five and walking three.
Despite his minimal big league experience, Kerkering nonetheless had long been expected to be part of the club’s bullpen mix on Opening Day. That won’t come to fruition, however, as Kerkering will spend at least the first few weeks of the season on the shelf as he continues to prepare for the 2024 season. Kerkering’s absence, along with Turnbull’s likely move from the bullpen to the rotation, creates some level of uncertainty in the Philly bullpen. The Phillies acquired right-hander Zac Houston from the Rays earlier today, and he could join the likes of Connor Brogdon, Kolby Allard, Michael Mercado, and Yunior Marte as possible options for the two bullpen spots previously expected to go to Kerkering and Turnbull.
Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Walker had been sent for an MRI on his shoulder. MLBTR regrets the error.
Not good
Good not
Mr burns says: Excellenttt
Is Walker still miffed about not pitching in the postseason last year?
I was miffed he didn’t pitch as well.
They stiffed him. Seems like he’s still shouldering some animosity.
I’m sure he understood his best chance at a ring was watching them do it from the comforts of home, making sure his check clears.
That was actually the case. I doubt that he has enough ” self awareness”, to see that!!
Ugh should of went after snell
Please, “gone”.
Damn. Hope it’s false alarm.
Well…I’ll overreact first. Call Montgomery.
The line around here is “Trevor is waiting.”
Regarding Bauer….get the leadership group on the team: Harper, Realmuto, Wheeler, Nola, Turner…perhaps a few more….in a room and ask if they want Bauer in the clubhouse. None of us know if they do or don’t. The thing with Bauer is that he’s already stated that he will pitch at a moderate price…. $5MM? with some incentives.? Still gives Phillies flexibility later in year….. If it pans out, great. If not, no long term financial issues. And if it does pan out, better chance to sign him next year as he will view the Phillies as the team who gave him a chance.
Love this idea. I like Monty. Not for 7 years, but I like his arm in the lineup, especially since he doesn’t cost a draft pick
That’s going to be a LOT of long term money committed to the rotation. But really, as it stands today, long term, big money contracts for Harper, Turner, Nola, Wheeler, and Monty don’t seem as damning as the long term commitments other teams have.
Yeah. I mostly said it in jest. Montgomery is a pipe dream unless the Phillies can get him to sign a shorter deal.
We have escaped the worst of the pitching injury news to this point, so we get to take a turn
Kerkering – hopefully just recovering slowly, and needs the time to build back up. He is young, and if he can get back here by June and start to pick up where he left off in September then no big deal. DD has added a lot more viable bullpen depth every year so hopefully we can weather this easily.
Taj – this one was being foreshadowed all spring. One of the very few DD deals for the Phils that I just didn’t like. And even there, if Taj pitches through his contract in similar fashion to last season, then it will be a reasonable deal.
Would love Montgomery at a discount, but not counting upon it. Boras, however, is camped out at the Middleton Mansion for the next few days.
Unless Montgomery is signing for a deep discount and a lot less years, he will be waiting a spell as budgets have been spent.
I think he’s willing to wait for season to start if he has to take a shorter deal with opt outs. He has yet to be tagged with a qualifying offer so if he’s with a team an entire season on a short term deal a QO could impact a future deal. Waiting takes that off the table for next season.
If he signed tomorrow, it would be May before he could join a rotation. He probably woukd have to go to the minors to get built up. So you would be getting one less month out of him this season.
If he signs tomorrow or at any point before season starts he would be eligible for qualifying offer on a one year deal or a deal with option to opt out next season. Has nothing to do with when he’s ready, has to do with having possible future free agency potentially impacted by a QO.
Call me crazy, but a team signing him would definitely be concerned when the guy they are signing would be ready to pitch whether QO or opt out involved or not.
It’s Monty who has reasons to be concerned with qualifying offer in a short term deal. It complicates another future contract.
Kerkering is only recovering from a bad case of the flu. He should be back around the middle to late April.
Would definitely make that call but if they are worried about the tax implications of a move like that, I personally would go after trevor Bauer. Wouldn’t take a 30mil commitment, probably keep them under that 3rd tier tax penalty..obviously this is if walker is out for an extensive time.
Teams are not interested in Bauer at any price, and for good reason.
Forgetting all of those asinine arguments on here about his guilt or innocence by all of the geniuses on the board, the guy has been a pain in the neck for years. There will be a huge PR downside for a team with a large subsection of the fanbase; he has been a very divisive personality for years and frankly it isn’t as if he is a surefire stud out there on the mound.
Risk and reward. Owning and operating a team is big business, and they actually pay attention to these things.
Just like James Paxton, great stuff but can’t stay healthy.
We need a Tigers article.
I’m starting to choke on my own venom…..
I remember Turnbull as pretty good when he was healthy. Others didn’t think so. I’m one of the people who don’t think personal stuff should factor into the baseball calculations. I think Dombrowski made a “Dom” move with this one but the pitcher didn’t get much of a chance to work after the surgery.
Maybe Dombrowski has a little more understanding of the Boras mind set?
Hoping Abel gets off to a hot start really would love to see him force the Phillies hand a little
@Saber A friend of mine works Security part time at Comerica. He told me Turnbull is a really strange dude and introvert and said he seemed a bit of an outcast in clubhouse. To what extent that impacts his pitching who knows. Just thought I’d share. He did say though that Skubal and Greene seemed like all around pretty solid young men. I just found it kinda cool hearing ones observation who is tasked with just standing around observing.
Your friend is really perceptive. Crazy he can tell all that from guys wearing headphones walking past him for 3 seconds lol.
Mick Abel’s debut may be earlier than anticipated.
Phillies are a prime example of why you can’t build a dynasty from free agency
Can you give me an example of a team who built a dynasty at all in recent years? The Astros are close. Other than that, I can’t think of anyone.
Also the Phillies farm has improved drastically. I think the Phillies are in a really good spot.
Ideally, you’d like to develop the talent internally, but that doesn’t always work. I think you absolutely need to combine marquee FA signings with internal depth.
They will never be as good as the Braves when they’re spending 58 on guys like Schwarber, Castellanos, Walker and have maybe 2.5 good cheap players
FWIW, they don’t necessarily have to be better than the Braves to win it all. They’ve been further than ATL last 2 seasons not by happenstance or scheduling malaise.
Manfred has made division titles masturbatory.
The Braves are one of the best run organizations in baseball. I don’t think they’re as good as the Braves either, but they proved they could beat them when it counts.
Also, while not spending what the Phillies are spending, the Braves are spending quite a bit as well. Again, goes back to what I said: marquee FA signings combined with internal talent. Braves are doing that well.
Playoffs are a crapshoot
90 regular season winsis pretty damn good. Your sole argument seems to be the Phillies aren’t as good as the Braves. Guess what? Majority of the league isn’t. Phillies are still a top 10 team IMO.
Top 5, easily
Is it more important to win the Division every season or is it more important to make it deep into the playoffs and into the World Series…regularly?
Yes, the Braves can build their dynasty teams to “win” Divisions year after year, but the lack the ability to finish it off regularly going deep into the playoffs and winning the World Series.
Sounds like the Phillies plan of spending is working out better than you and your Braves team’s plans.
And for that matter, even the Dodgers plans of buying every superstar player with even more stupid money than Middleton’s stupid money isn’t good either.
It all comes down to how you mesh superstars with young home grown talent. The team has to work as a team in the clubhouse and on the field. If there are super egos on the team and they don’t work together as a team, they don’t make it to the WS. Aka, Mets problems year after year. Big ego players causing internal team problems.
@ayeah – “…the Braves can build their dynasty teams to ‘win’ Divisions year after year, but the lack the ability to finish it off regularly going deep into the playoffs and winning the World Series.”
I continue to hear this point, but don’t understand how 2021 alludes some people. Your point applies more to PHI, who – yes, has passed ATL in the postseason last 2 years – but lost in the WS in ’22 and blew the final 2 games of the NLCS at home (1 GS vs. rookie Pfaadt, mind you) in ’23, but it’s ATL with their giant ’21 WS rings that ‘can’t bring it home’.
Let’s see PHI face LAD in the postseason. Seems like the league always relies on ATL to beat HOU or LAD and restore some faith in justice and mid-markets. You’re welcome.
ATL can spend in FA (as them outbidding for Nola recently can attest), they just see more value and benefit from having better development than most, filling in holes in FA. It’ll be interesting to see what they do next year, when Fried leaves via FA.
Atlanta would absolutely love the phillies outcomes the past two years…… they would be disappointed, but would rather have the phillies past history than their own. And I’m a phillies fan who appreciates how the Braves are run and how they play the game.
Phillies are 13 – 9 against the Dodgers in the postseason. Winning the postseason series from Dodgers in 1983 (When the Dodgers beat them 11 out of 12 games during the regular season.) and beat the Dodgers in the 2008 and 2009 playoff series. Your point on seeing the Phillies face the Dodgers in the postseason subject is?
Yeppers, go up a few and see my statement: “They’ve [PHI] been further than ATL last 2 seasons not by happenstance or scheduling malaise.”
But the continued focus on last 2 years while forgetting the significance of the prior year seems convenient. If you think Acuna, Strider, etc will continue to be cold in postseason series in small sample sizes with continued exposure then good luck on those odds.
I’m a Phillies fan who agrees with RunDMC. Counting the Braves out because they lost 2 series to the Phillies is just foolish. The Braves can beat the Phillies in the playoffs. They haven’t, but they can, and the Phillies know it. That’s why it behooves the Phillies to try to win the division. No one wants to play Atlanta. No one wants to play Philly. That doesn’t mean either team is unbeatable. Diamondbacks took care of the Phillies last year. Sometimes bats just get cold.
That’s good knowledge. Respect!
Very true.
@Fraham – but they are not trying to do that, and besides the Yankees would take exception to that statement.
The spending that has taken place is a stopgap measure, while they take the time to totally rebuild from the disaster of the Klentak Regime.
They didn’t have to spend so much to field a competitive team during this time frame, but credit to Middleton for doing so. In the meantime they are rebuilding the farm and player development from the ground up so that they can extend things out by bringing in the kids on the cheap to replenish the roster as time marches on.
They certainly have a high payroll and a top heavy one to boot, but arguably have been more effective in their FA dealings than almost everyone out there. As someone that far prefers a team that is built to compete each and every year to the teams that go all in and then drop away, I have been happy with their approach.
Good thing we didn’t make any major signings!…
With all these pitching starved teams and the Phils potentially interested in one of the big free agents, thought they would dangle Taijuan out there to see if they could get back a usable piece while shredding a little salary. Or packaged him with Nick Castellanos and some 2nd tier prospects for Mike Trout. Salaries would have offset next 3 years. Turnbull will get an opportunity here, hope he makes the most of it. Kirkering was most likely slated for AAA anyway, if the Phillies were going to try and squeeze the out of options guys onto the 26 man roster.
Not at all related to postseason usage last year, right?
Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Boras on line 1 please
Montgomery and Boras have mis-timed the market. They must think he’s Cole Hamels in his prime.
Every time I see someone say Walker made 31 starts, it sounds made up. I thought he was injured most of the year until I first heard that over the winter.
No, Walker did pitch that many games last year. He just pitched good for 2 of the 6 months of the season. Hence the reason why he sat for the playoffs.