March 24: Suarez will indeed open the 2025 season on the injured list, per Zolecki. Walker will be the Phillies’ fifth starter. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski tells the Phillies beat that Suarez could potentially pitch in the majors sometime in April if he continues his current progression with no setbacks.
March 23: Ranger Suarez has been dealing with a bad back over the last week, and it seems like the Phillies will give the left-hander some extra time to recover by placing him on the 15-day injured list to begin the season. Manager Rob Thomson more or less confirmed the move today, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki noted that Thomson told reporters post-game that the Phillies “expect Ranger to go on the IL,” but stated in an interview during the game that Suarez would definitively be placed on the 15-day.
The move seems largely precautionary, as Thomson said “We don’t want this thing to linger. So if we do officially IL him, we don’t think it’s going to be long.” Zolecki notes that Suarez might just miss a single start if he spends only the 15-day minimum on the sidelines, due to the three-day backdating available for IL placements and the fact that the Phillies have three off-days within the first 12 days of the regular season.
Back problems hampered Suarez last year, effectively bifurcating what initially seemed like a breakout season for the left-hander. Suarez had a sparkling 1.83 ERA over his first 98 1/3 innings of the 2024 campaign, and then a 6.54 ERA in his final 52 1/3 innings once his back started causing problems. Suarez skipped the All-Star Game to spend the break resting his back, but Philadelphia ended up placing him on the 15-day IL anyway, which kept Suarez out of action for a month.
This early-season IL trip might well help Suarez get in front of any injury problems early, as trying to pitch through his bad back might’ve only worsened the issue last year. The Phillies aren’t really losing much by resting him early, plus Taijuan Walker is on hand to step into the rotation.
Walker has looked good for much of Spring Training, though his last start saw the Yankees tee off for six earned runs over 3 2/3 innings of work from the right-hander. As always, spring results aren’t necessarily as important as process, and Zolecki writes that Walker’s four-seamer has added over three miles miles per hours of added velocity, plus Walker’s splitter has also looked better. In a sense, there’s nowhere to go but up for Walker after a dismal 2024 season that saw him post a 7.10 ERA in 83 2/3 innings.
Perfect chance to hopefully showcase Walker and trade him before Painter arrives in the Show.
Don’t think there’s a market for Walker even if they eat most of his contract.
U R correct! He would be hard pressed to find a one year deal at anything above 3M!
Ranger Danger
Dunsel, I have been accused of being a glass 1/2 full type most of my life, but man you just zoomed past any of my highest plans w/this one!
@cpdpoet…Personally, I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe Walker could have a bounceback season. It’s not like he’s been bad for 3+ seasons or anything. What @Dunsel is suggesting truly is the Phillies best course of action.
Just a couple of years ago Walker was good enough to command a long term(4 yr deal I believe), very lucrative contract with the Phillies after a pretty good stretch with the Mets.
MLB doesn’t hand out $60M+ to every Tom, Dick or Harry that walks thru the door and Tajuin Walker wasn’t signed in a vacuum. There’s a reason he was given that contract.
I’m not saying Walker is great and I know many Phillies fans are down on him. But, it really wasn’t that long ago he was an effective pitcher who was good enough to attain and earn an extended $60M+ contract.
What a ludicrous comment.
“…effectively bifurcating what initially seemed like a breakout season for the left-hander.” Hats off, that’s pretty elegant writing for a sports website! Most other baseball blogs are written by 23 year olds who’d struggle to get a C in a writing class. They look something up in a thesaurus and then misuse it. MLBTR is the home of good sportswriting, Again, hats off!
It’s enough to cause endocarditis reading the kids these days
Then you need a doctor to perform bifurcation on your chest if antibiotics don’t help
Valve replacement could be done with a minimally invasive approach, possibly avoiding the need for true bifurcation. And I am not ribbing you
Time for a median sternotomy.
There still opening you up and doing open heart surgery… that is if the antibiotics don’t help
Lot of words to say, Suarez is hurt for the 17th time and Walker is still a bum.
The early schedule has a few off-days, so Suarez might only miss one start. Walker’s ready to pitch, and he’s throwing harder this spring, which could mean he’s better than his rough 2024.
There are better pitchers than Walker who can be picked up on the waiver wire. I can’t believe he’s the best SP depth they have. They had this same problem last year of having to go to Walker anytime someone got hurt.
The Phillies have a lot of $ invested in Walker the next two seasons. I’m sure they figure it’s worth giving him a shot at bouncing back to the inning eater he was a few years ago , at least until Painter is ready or he completely implodes again (whichever comes first). Although his velocity has come back, he wasn’t too sharp his last two ST outings.
What a shock, Suarez out of shape and hurt again.
Walker and Suarez, two peas in a pod, useless.
Big difference between the two: Walker has never been much better than an inning eater at best while when healthy Suarez has been dominant at times and much better than average the rest of the time.
9-10 months ago Suarez seemed to barreling toward $120M+ in free agency. It will be interesting to see how things play out this season with him and potential free agency. Mostly I just hope he gets fully healthy.
If Walker gets the ball the Phillies will have to recall Garrett Stubbs to finish out the game.
It’s clear Walker has worked hard to get back on track, but he just got shellacked again in his last outing.
We all know how this is going to end, so why give up unnecessary losses early in the season that we will regret when we’re 2 games behind the Braves in September?
Start Joe Ross or anyone else, save Walker for mop ups until he shows he can last more than a couple of innings in a regular season game.
Glad you see yourself in third place. Mets had Walker pitching good.
Yeah, don’t be surprised if he ends up pitching more games for the Mets than the Phillies this year.
Your team’s pitching has some holes. Looks a little third placey to me.
Hope they can salvage some kind of value from Taijuan. If he pitches even like a league average or slightly below SP, this could afford the Phillies FO to put Ranger in the pen when he gets back. Topper is going to be relying on guys like Jose Ruiz and Tanner Banks to get meaningful outs late in games. Why not let Ranger build up his strength in the pen and save some of those bullets for October? Ranger was the best pitcher in baseball through 100 innings last year. This could be a good way to keep his innings down, while getting important outs in the 7th & 8th innings in April & May. He’s the only one of the 6 that has any bullpen experience anyways, and we could actually use him down there. When the need inevitably arises in the rotation, insert Ranger for the grind.
Loss every 5th.
Walker will get torched.
This is GREAT Taijuan Walker news. Pitch him early on, he’ll suck, and extract him from the roster. Eat the frigin money! Everybody knew this was a stupid signing the moment it happened. Go Phils 2025!!!