Phillies officially clarify Taijuan Walker's status in starting rotation for 2025
The Phillies will make Walker earn his rotation spot in 2025, with Andrew Painter waiting in the wings for his chance.
Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson met with the media on Tuesday to discuss the 2024 season and what goals the organization has set in order to not repeat a quick exit in the postseason in 2025. For those hoping for a drastic change in the coaching ranks, Tuesday's press conference failed to deliver on recent speculation, suggesting a dugout purge was a real possibility.
But that doesn't mean that the press conference was short on hints about the team's future. We learned that Thomson had his contract extended to include the 2026 season, the entire coaching staff will return in 2025, Johan Rojas will continue to work on his offense in Clearwater this offseason, and that top outfield prospect Justin Crawford could make his debut sometime next season.
Phillies officially clarify Taijuan Walker's status in starting rotation for 2025
But what about the starting rotation? With Taijuan Walker having the worst season by a Phillies pitcher in 30 years, and every depth option who temporarily took his place not providing enough to supply enough production, questions regarding the fifth spot in the starting rotation were naturally a topic of interest.
That being said, Dombrowski didn't disappoint when he spoke about the future of the rotation when the topic finally took center stage.
The issues that plagued the Phillies rotation this season can mostly be pinned on one spot in the rotation — the one held by Walker. Plugging the hole at the back of rotation saw the likes of Spencer Turnbull, Tyler Phillips, Kyle Tyler, and Kolby Allard all come and go while not doing much to solve the problem.
It's no secret that the two years and $36 million remaining on Walker's contract is nearly impossible to move at this time, the only hope is that Walker will improve enough to become a reliable pitcher once more. Dave Dombrowski took a hopeful but honest view of the situation when discussing Walker's future in a Phillies uniform.
“I would think he’ll come to spring training with us next year but he’s not guaranteed a starting spot," said Dombrowski. "I don’t think I can just say, ‘Hey, you’re our fifth starter.’ I think he would come to camp and be in a battle to try to win a spot in the rotation.”
Top prospect Andrew Painter is in the mix for a rotation spot in 2025
While Walker will undergo an offseason of rediscovering his pitch mix, the Phillies front office made clear that the open rotation spot will be up for grabs during spring training. And one name that was floated as a possibility is top pitching prospect Andrew Painter, who recently pitched two innings in the Arizona Fall League with promising results. Dombrowski didn't rule out the possibility that Painter could help the ball club in 2025.
“We’re going to have to make a determination how we’re going to use [Painter’s] innings next year, because he’s not going to be a guy that we can throw out and count on pitching 180 innings at the major league level.” offered Dombrowski.
While there's a lot of time between now and when the Phillies next take the field in February, the end-of-year press conference made clear that the Phillies won't just hand the ball over to Walker again next season, he'll have to earn it. While that concept occurred a little too late to save this season, it's the first indication that the Phillies don't intend to make the same mistakes in 2025.
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