Cardinals could turn Phillies castoff into unexpected gift for their rotation

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a really fragile spot with their rotation right now. The current five-man group is struggling produce consistent results, often turning in short outings with an ERA in the bottom third of baseball. The club also lacks Major League-ready depth outside of Hunter Dobbins, and you could even argue that one of their arms, Kyle Leahy, doesn't look ready to be in a big league rotation as we speak.

Well, why not take a flyer on an arm that's found a lot of success in his own career in recently released right-hander Taijuan Walker?

The Phillies let go of their right-handed starter following giving up five runs (four earned) in just four innings against the Chicago Cubs, raising his ERA on the year to 9.13 as the Phillies lost their eighth straight game. Philadelphia has no time to waste as they look to rebound from their terrible start to the season, so they decided to release the 33 year old who was in the final year of his four-year, $72 million deal.

Because of that, the Cardinals could sign Walker for the veteran minimum, with the Phillies on the hook for the rest of his salary, and add another arm to their current rotation. Why exactly woud the Cardinals want to add someone who has been as bad as Walker to their rotation right now? Well, they need arms, and Walker would require minimal investment with a potential payoff to come if they can right the ship for him.

Signing Taijuan Walker is about as low-risk a move as the Cardinals can find

This idea was first brought to my attention by Brandon Kiley as I listened in to BK and Ferario over on 101 ESPN, and while I was skeptical when his name was initally brought up, the reasoning made a ton of sense to me, and I want to build upon that here.

As noted above, the Cardinals' current five-man group has really struggled this year, ranking 23rd in baseball in ERA (4.46), and the expected metrics are not any kinder. They are one injury away from having no depth behind that group, either. The club is not going to be in a rush to get Quinn Mathews or other young arms up to St. Louis before they are truly ready.

Bringing in an arm like Walker would give the club another arm to turn to, and if he pitches poorly, they can release him and move on easily. But believe it or not, there is upside to this move as well if he works out.

First, having another option, considering the fact that injuries will likely occur, helps insulate the Cardinals' pitching as they wait for their prospects to be ready. Hopefully, sometime this summer, Mathews is ready to join the mix, and perhaps later, other arms could be ready for their shot as well. But in the meantime, the Cardinals need to make sure they get innings from somewhere.

One fix the Cardinals would need to figure out with Walker is why his splitter is getting obliterated by opposing hitters to the tune of a .361 batting average and .583 slugging percentage. When Walker has been good, his splitter has been a plus pitch, but lately, it's been anything but that.

Walker has had stretches of his career where he's lost feel for his splitter, including back in 2024 when the Phillies had to skip multiple starts as he tried to regain supremacy over what can be such an effective pitch. He got it to perform better in 2025, but has completely lost it again. If Dusty Blake, Matt Pierpont, and the rest of the Cardinals staff can help Walker stabilize, he'll be a usable starter.

And that matters, considering how much room Leahy still has to develop and the lack of confidence that many still have in Andre Pallante. Even aside from potential injuries, being able to let Leahy work through his issues in the Memphis rotation or just move back to the bullpen could be helpful for all sides, and the Cardinals could even make a move on Pallante if they wanted to open up a spot for Dobbins but keep their pitching depth.

And hey, if things go really well, and Walker has a nice few months with the Cardinals, he can be another name they sell at the deadline to bring in a prospect. I'm not talking about anything major here, but as we saw when the Cardinals flipped Paul DeJong for Matt Svanson, those deals can mean something later. Teams are always looking for pitching at the trade deadline, and if Walker were pitching even just decently, he would have a market.

I'm not trying to sell you on this being some flashy, can't-miss opportunity for the Cardinals, and I won't throw a fit if they pass on the opportunity, but I do think this is a buy-low situation work taking a chance on, and worst case, they release him with far less of a financial penalty than the Phillies just took on.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow