Philadelphia Phillies fans have a lot to complain about, even with the team on track for a favorable spot in the postseason. A geriatric roster that failed to win a World Series when they had a golden opportunity is now fighting an uphill battle just to make it back to the postseason. On top of that, touted rookies Andrew Painter and Justin Crawford have yet to live up to their billing as the nucleus of another playoff core, and the farm system has very little in the way of exciting prospects.
However, if there’s one thing that should make fans feel better, it’s that they’re not the Los Angeles Angels. And that they no longer have Taijuan Walker.
The Angels make everyone else feel better about themselves. The Phillies may have some bad contracts on the books, but nothing close to the legendarily awful seven-year, $245 million deal Anaheim handed to Anthony Rendon, a man who doesn’t even want to play the game of baseball.
The Phillies went through a miserable decade-long playoff drought shortly after winning the World Series in 2008, but the Angels are currently in the midst of a league-worst 11-year span of no October baseball. To make it even worse, the Halos employed Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, possibly the two greatest players of their generation, and still couldn’t sniff the playoffs.
The Phillies are having some starting rotation trouble at the moment, as Painter and the washed up Aaron Nola are routinely throwing away games after the excellent top three of Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo take the hill. Once again, the Angels have it worse, as aside from young success stories José Soriano and Walbert Ureña, they’re getting practically nothing from their starters.
To sum things up: for everything that Phillies fans don’t like about their team, Angels fans have it worse. That’s why Twitter couldn’t stop laughing when the Angels signed the reviled Taijuan Walker to a minor league contract a few weeks back. The Phils had cut Walker loose in the last year of his disastrous four-year, $96 million contract after he had posted a pathetic 9.13 ERA across five April games.
Former Phillies pitcher Taijuan Walker is a free agent again after opting out of his minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels, per the MiLB transaction log. pic.twitter.com/61J0vXiRg2
— Phillies Nation (@PhilliesNation) June 8, 2026
Angels general manager Perry Minasian seemed to think Walker might have something left in the tank, so he scooped him up for nothing a month after his release from the Phillies. Minasian tried the same gambit earlier this year when he signed former Phillies dumpster fire Jordan Romano to a $2 million pact to “solidify” the bullpen. That lasted all of 11 games before Romano and his 10.13 ERA were kicked to the curb.
Angels just realized what Phillies fans knew all along: Taijuan Walker is bad at baseball
In fairness to Walker, he did put up a solid 2.45 ERA over three minor league contests in the Angels’ system, but evidently didn’t show enough to warrant another shot in the big leagues. Walker seems to think a different team will give him more of an opportunity, as he opted out of his Angels deal this week.
Whether or not Walker resurfaces in the majors at some point is immaterial. The fact of the matter is that the Phillies were right to cut bait on their sunk cost for the good of the team, and it was emphasized when the Angels didn't give him a roster spot.
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