The Orioles announced that left-hander Josh Walker has been signed to a one-year Major League contract. Salary terms weren’t announced, but Walker (who was already in Baltimore’s organization) was slated to earn a minimum MLB salary as a pre-arbitration player.
Like recent deals with Rico Garcia and Luis Vazquez, Walker’s new contract is likely meant to give Baltimore a little extra control over their services, and give other teams a little more reason to pause should the O’s designate Walker or the other for assignment over the course of the winter. A slightly larger salary beyond the big league minimum might deter some clubs, and since Walker is out of minor league options, the Orioles will have to DFA him whenever (or if ever) they want to try and get Walker off the 40-man roster.
Walker has appeared in each of the last three Major League seasons, amassing a 6.59 ERA over 27 1/3 innings with the Mets and Blue Jays. All three of his 2025 appearances in the Show came with Toronto, and the Jays traded Walker to the Phillies in late May. The southpaw spent the rest of the year with the Triple-A affiliates of the Phillies and Orioles, as Baltimore claimed Walker off waivers in August.
Walker’s MLB numbers and his 4.39 career ERA over 174 1/3 Triple-A innings are nothing to write home about, but he does have a 25.67% strikeout rate at the Triple-A level. The Orioles seem to have liked what they saw from Walker during his brief time in the organization, and this new contract gives him a bit of a better chance of winning a bullpen job in Spring Training.
Why?
Why not?
I asked you first
A lefty bull-pen arm that K’s and the Orioles are hoping they ‘bought’ a forth option-year when he’s inevitably removed from the 40-man in a week or less.
…so, why not?
Fair enough….
because he’s terrible, and 40-man spots should be for guys who are not terrible.
Yes, I am aware that he’s being given a major league contract and pay so that it is less likely he will be claimed if he is DFA-ed, but he’s terrible. He’s not worth the fuss. And he is taking a place from somebody who might be worth the time.
So there’s no reason to have him. If he were a minor league signing, sure, who cares. But a major league signing… No.
Josh Walker might not be a guy you want to have, but the next Brian Baker or Felix Bautista weren’t known names at the time they were claimed/acquired either. I just don’t know if Josh Walker is ‘the next guy up’or just the latest guy to pass-through waivers.
The bullpen remake has been underway since the trade deadline and has already found some guys that’ll be on the pen in ’26. There were a couple minor-league bull-pen arms from the deadline too that’ll be up next year.
When it comes to bull-pens Elias has already put a good one together…don’t see why he won’t do it again.
You are correct, but the very fact that there are so many genuine possibilities highlights what a waste of time Walker is. Their bullpen shouldn’t have Povich, Cano, probably not Selby either. And they are all light years better than Walker.
Far better to save the dollars for better players.
Unless they think they can fix whatever is wrong, but if it were that easy, Povich wouldn’t still be so mediocre
He is probably the worst reliever that I’ve ever seen. I remember when the Mets lost to the Royals 2 years ago because he balked in the winning run. Enjoy Orioles fans, when you miss the playoffs by a couple games you can thank Josh Walker and the “Executive of the year” Ellias
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Probably so they can send to aaa as out of options for depth. They did the same with a few guys last yr as limited options for guys in pen and you gotta have some depth.
Yeah this is not the inspiring signing I was hoping for my O’s. There’s nothing wrong with having healthy reliable effective pitching depth. I can’t speak to health for him but reliable and effective are not how I would describe him.
Another crap move for the sake of making moves
@gr81t2
in regards to your comment above. replace the word MOVE with POST and you and I agree on something.
why take time to spread your raincloud opinions? just sit quietly & wait for your call to join the FO at the Warehouse.
You’re the same bozo who thought all was good last off season
yup, me and most of the professional writers that didn’t think the Os would be that terrible. I’m very okay admitting when my optimism wasn’t warranted. 2025 sucked. I was wrong.
I can wait and see what will happen and not spend every minute whining and spreading my malaise. it’s called trying to pull for my team and not set the Warehouse on fire because no one has hired you to listen to your garbage takes.
we just exited the World Series and are in the quiet period but you seem to be angry they haven’t yet announced that Ohtani and Yamamoto are coming in a trade for Cano and Monty.
I think people ought to have a limited number of whiney posts. you’re overdrawn.
It didn’t take a genius last offseason to know that the entire pitching staff was not only hanging by a thread, but some guys were trending downward. Grayson was of course one long toenail away from the IL and Cano had major red flags heading into the season….just to make a few. But Elias and his computer thought the numbers would swing in their favor, and they didn’t, and they didn’t have any backup whatsoever.
Kittredge, Walker, Garcia, Enns. Elias is getting the bullpen shopping out of the way early
I think they can put together a decent pen. We’ll see what big rocks we can get for the rotation and to hit lefties. I would love to see Baltimore sign the Mets’ 1st base coach to help squeeze some more steals out this year.
I have a feeling that a split contract that pays him $800K majors and $350K minors would probably have been enough to slip him through waivers.