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Neil Walker

Neil Walker Announces Retirement

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Longtime major league second baseman Neil Walker has retired from baseball at the age of 35. Walker broke the news to Sweeny Murti of WFAN as a guest on the “30 for Murti” podcast.

A Pittsburgh native, Walker was a first-round pick (No. 11) of his hometown Pirates in 2004. Five years later, Walker made a 17-game big league debut, and he became both a regular and a consistently solid contributor beginning the next season. During a 3,386-plate appearance run from 2010-15, the switch-hitting Walker put up five seasons of at least 2.4 fWAR (including a career-high 4.1 in 2014, when he won a Silver Slugger Award) and batted .273/.338/.443 with 93 home runs.

Walker’s time with the Pirates concluded when they traded him to the Mets for left-hander Jon Niese prior to the 2016 campaign. The move didn’t work out at all for the Bucs, with whom Niese’s production spiraled, though Walker continued to perform well in Queens. He batted .275/.344/.462 and smacked 33 HRs over 757 PA in a Mets uniform in parts of two seasons, but with the team out of contention late in 2017, it traded him to the Brewers for the stretch run.

Walker didn’t re-sign with the Brewers, instead returning to New York n a one-year, $4MM guarantee with the Yankees. With a .219/.309/.354 line in 398 trips to the plate, Walker turned in his worst offensive season as a regular in 2018. He enjoyed somewhat of a bounce-back campaign the next season on a $2MM deal as a member of the Marlins, though he still had to settle for a minor league contract with the Phillies going into 2020. While Walker did make it to the majors for a 12th straight season, he struggled enough over 18 games that the Phillies designated him for assignment in September.

Although Walker had a less-than-ideal ending, he still enjoyed a far more successful and lucrative career than the vast majority of major leaguers. He’ll end with a .267/.338/.426 line, 149 homers and 21.6 fWAR/19.6 rWAR across 1,306 games and 5,152 trips to the plate. Walker also earned nearly $52MM in the bigs, per Baseball-Reference.com.

MLBTR congratulates Walker on an impressive career and wishes him the best in retirement.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Neil Walker Elects Free Agency

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The Phillies announced that veteran infielder Neil Walker, whom they designated for assignment last Friday, has elected free agency after clearing waivers. Philadelphia also reinstated Scott Kingery from the injured list and optioned lefty Ranger Suarez to the alternate training site.

Walker, 35, struggled to a .231/.244/.308 slash through 18 games and 41 plate appearances prior to being designated on Friday. The Phils opted to swap him out for fellow infielder Ronald Torreyes, who gives them an option at shortstop — a position not in Walker’s repertoire — and to provide better overall glovework at other spots around the infield.

Although Walker wasn’t particularly sharp with the Phillies, he notched a solid .261/.344/.395 batting line with the Marlins just last year. He was also a consistently productive hitter from 2010-17, slashing a combined .273/.342/.439 in 4294 plate appearances between the Pirates, Mets and Brewers. He’ll be eligible to sign with any club for the duration of the season should he choose. If he does latch on with a new club by tomorrow, he’d still be eligible for his new club’s postseason roster.

Phillies Designate Neil Walker, Select Ronald Torreyes

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The Phillies announced Friday that they’ve designated veteran infielder Neil Walker for assignment and swapped him out for fellow veteran Ronald Torreyes, whose contract has been selected from their alternate training site. Additionally, southpaw Adam Morgan has been reinstated from the injured list, and righty Ramon Rosso is up as the 29th man for today’s twin bill.

Walker, who turned 35 yesterday, beat out a crowded field to secure a bench spot with the Phillies during Summer Camp. In addition to Torreyes, the Phils had Josh Harrison, Logan Forsythe, Phil Gosselin and T.J. Rivera on minor league deals. Walker and Gosselin won backup spots, but Walker struggled to a .231/.244/.308 slash through 18 games and 41 plate appearances prior to today’s move.

Obviously, Walker wasn’t a heavily used piece in Philadelphia, where top prospect Alec Bohm has impressed through his first 25 big league games at third base. With Jean Segura holding his own at second base and Rhys Hoskins raking at first, playing time has been hard to come by for Walker. The addition of Torreyes in his place will give the club another option to handle shortstop — one of the few positions that Walker has never played at the MLB level.

Although Walker didn’t hit much in his short time with Philly, he’s just a season removed from posting a solid .261/.344/.395 batting line in a utility role with the Marlins. And, of course, Walker was a consistently strong producer from 2010-17, when he hit a combined .273/.342/.439 in just shy of 4300 plate appearances between the Pirates, Mets and Brewers.

The 28-year-old Torreyes, meanwhile, will be reunited with former Yankees skipper Joe Girardi. Torreyes was a fan favorite with the Yanks from 2016-18 when he hit .281/.308/.374 through 221 games as an oft-used bench piece. He spent the 2019 season in the Twins organization but hit poorly in Triple-A and saw only a very brief look in the big leagues.

Phillies Designate Robert Stock For Assignment, Set Opening Day Roster

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The Phillies set their Opening Day roster this morning, announcing within their press release that righty Robert Stock was designated for assignment. The club has selected the contracts of veteran infielder Neil Walker and right-handers Trevor Kelley and Ramon Rosso. The Phils also reinstated Scott Kingery, Hector Neris, Tommy Hunter and lefty Austin Davis from the injured list. The Phils’ initial roster only includes 29 players, MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki notes, but it seems they could yet add veteran infielder Phil Gosselin to the mix. They’ll first need to make another 40-man move to clear space on the roster, however, which is likely the reason he has not yet been included.

Stock, 30, averages nearly 98 mph on his heater and posted a 4.11 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate in 50 1/3 innings with the Padres between 2018-19. That’s a solid-enough resume, but he’s still bounced from St. Louis, to Houston, to Pittsburgh, to Cincinnati, to San Diego and Philadelphia since being a 2009 second-round pick and has only these past two seasons of MLB work on his resume.

Injuries have played their role, but Stock also has struggled to locate the ball throughout his time in the minor leagues (career 5.5 BB/9). He has a pair of minor league options remaining and was claimed by the Phils the last time he hit waivers, so perhaps another club will speculate on his powerful right arm.

It was already known that the veteran Walker would make the club’s Opening Day roster. The former Pirates stalwart has long been a steady producer and has recently added more positions to his repertoire, appearing at third base, first base and in the outfield corners. The switch-hitter batted .261/.344/.395 in 381 plate appearances with the Marlins last year and won a spot on the Phillies over veterans Logan Forsythe and Josh Harrison, among others.

Rosso, 24, has a strong minor league track record as a starter but seems likelier to operate out of the bullpen early in the season. It’ll be his MLB debut whenever he gets into a game. Kelley appeared in the big leagues with th Red Sox last year and was a waiver claim by the Phils, who later outrighted him off the 40-man but kept him in the organization. He pitched his way back into the mix this summer and will get his first MLB look with the Phils in the near future.

Phillies Release Logan Forsythe, Francisco Liriano; Neil Walker To Make Opening Day Roster

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The Phillies announced a series of roster moves, including the news that left-hander Francisco Liriano and infielder Logan Forsythe have been granted releases.  Infielder Neil Walker, meanwhile, has been told he will be on Philadelphia’s Opening Day roster, so the team will be officially selecting his minor league contract at some point between now and the first game.  In other moves, catcher Henri Lartigue has been removed from the Summer Camp player pool and righty Victor Arano was optioned to Triple-A.

Liriano and Forsythe both had opt-out decisions coming this week, and it seems as if the club gave them an early start on the open market since neither were in the Phillies’ plans.  Walker, by contrast, also had an opt-out clause but will now receive the prorated sum of his original (non-specified) guarantee for making the big league team.

Forsythe and Walker were among several veteran infielders added by the Phillies this winter, as Josh Harrison, Ronald Torreyes, and Phil Gosselin were also signed to minor league deals.  The latter trio is still in camp, though it remains to be seen how many other roster spots will be available.  Scott Kingery is back after recovering from COVID-19 though it isn’t yet known if he’ll be ready for Opening Day, while star prospect Alec Bohm figures to arrive at some point in 2020, perhaps once service time considerations are no longer a factor.

Walker, 34, hit .261/.344/.395 with eight homers over 381 PA with Miami last season, delivering roughly league-average (98 OPS+, 99 wRC+) offensive production.  The switch-hitting Walker did much of his damage from the left side of the plate last season, as has been the norm for much of his career.

It seemed as if Forsythe was having a comeback season for the first two months of his tenure with the Rangers last season, but a hot start quickly turned, and the 33-year-old ended up with only a .227/.325/.353 slash line from 367 PA.  Forsythe will now look to catch on with his fifth different organization within the last two years.

There was some doubt as to whether or not Liriano would play at all during the 2020 season, as the southpaw reportedly considered sitting out due to COVID-19 concerns before eventually showing up at Philadelphia’s camp.  2019 saw Liriano work exclusively as a reliever for the first time in his long career, and he delivered a 3.47 ERA, 1.80 K/BB rate, 50.3% grounder rate, and 8.1 K/9 over 70 innings out of the Pirates’ bullpen.  As you would expect, Liriano performed better against left-handed batters (holding them to a .659 OPS) but also held righty swingers to a respectable .730 OPS.

Beyond these numbers, however, Liriano also allowed a lot of hard contract, so there is some uncertainty as to whether he’d be able to replicate his solid 2019 statistics again.  Given teams’ ever-present need for left-handed pitching, one would think Liriano will be able to find another minor league deal elsewhere.

Phillies, J.T. Realmuto Pause Extension Talks

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Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto has been an obvious extension candidate for a while, but nothing has come together yet as he nears his final season of team control. With the coronavirus pushing back the start of the season for the foreseeable future, it doesn’t appear a new Realmuto pact will materialize in the near term. The Phillies and Realmuto have hit the pause button on negotiations for the time being, general manager Matt Klentak revealed Tuesday (via Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd explained Tuesday, there isn’t a roster freeze or a moratorium on extensions, so teams and players aren’t prohibited from hammering out long-term agreements. On the other hand, with the start of the 2020 campaign off the table for a while, there’s a lot less urgency for the two sides to get something done. The Phillies had been prioritizing a preseason extension for Realmuto, though. Therefore, it stands to reason they’ll get back to work on one when there’s clarity regarding the date of Opening Day, if not sooner.

While Realmuto at least has a contract for this year, players from the Phillies and other teams who signed minor league deals containing opt-out clauses are facing quite a bit of uncertainty.

Klentak spoke on their statuses, saying: “We do not have clarity. There’s a possibility we will have to make some of those decisions this week.”

Philadelphia has a few established veterans who landed non-guaranteed pacts with opt-outs and were competing for big league roles before the postponement of spring training. As Lauber notes, infielders Neil Walker and Logan Forsythe and relievers Anthony Swarzak and Francisco Liriano may all exit their deals Thursday. Speculatively, however, MLB could push the deadlines back for players in those situations.

East Notes: Moose, Jays, Donaldson, Braves, N. Walker, deGrom

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Mike Moustakas came off the market when he signed a surprisingly large contract (four years, $64MM) with the Reds in December. It turns out that the Blue Jays were among the runners-up for Moustakas, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who tweets that they made him a three-year, $30MM offer. The Reds obviously blew that proposal out of the water, however, and the Jays pivoted to a much cheaper corner infielder Travis Shaw (one year, $4MM). A third baseman for most of his career, Moustakas is set to handle second in Cincinnati. That position is spoken for in Toronto (Cavan Biggio), as is third (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.), so it seems likely Moustakas would have worked at 1B extensively for the first time in his career had the club won the bidding for him. Instead, the Blue Jays will hope for a bounce-back season from Shaw, who was teammates with Moustakas in Milwaukee last year.

Let’s move over to the NL East…

  • The Braves lost their top free agent, Josh Donaldson, to the Twins’ four-year, $92MM offer over the winter. Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos acknowledged afterward that the team put forth an offer that came up short. Heyman has some details on it, reporting that the Braves were willing to go to four years in the range of $75MM to $90MM to retain Donaldson. That’s a wide gap, so it’s unknown just how much money Donaldson would have left on the table to re-sign with Atlanta. Regardless, the club now looks to be in much less impressive shape at third, where Austin Riley and Johan Camargo are competing for the starting role.
  • Infielder Neil Walker signed a minor league contract with the Phillies over the winter, but he has no plans to play below the MLB level. “I’m not going to concede to the notion of retiring as a 34-year-old who is in good shape,” Walker told Matt Gelb of The Athletic (subscription link). “But I’m not going to play in Triple A.” For now, Walker’s continuing to compete for a reserve role in Philadelphia, but if he’s unable to find a big league job with the Phillies or another team this season, it’s possible it’ll be the end of the line for the longtime second baseman. The switch-hitting Walker did still have something to offer at the plate last season, though, as he batted .261/.344/.395 (99 wRC+) in 381 trips.
  • As a back-to-back Cy Young winner, it doesn’t seem that Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom has to change anything. But the ace is now working on adding more curveballs into his repertoire, Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News writes. According to FanGraphs, deGrom’s usage of the pitch ranged from 7.9 percent to 10.8 percent from 2014-18. The number dropped to 3 percent in 2019, when opposing hitters had their way with it to the tune of a .364 weighted on-base average. That was the only pitch deGrom threw last year that hitters could even muster a .300 mark against. He was dominant overall, notching a 2.43 ERA/2.67 FIP with 11.25 K/9 and 1.94 BB/9 over 204 innings.

Central Notes: Tigers, Boyd, Fulmer, Pirates, Walker

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Let’s check in on a pair of teams from the game’s Central divisions…

  • The Tigers and left-hander Matthew Boyd avoided arbitration with a one-year, $5.3MM agreement earlier this month. There was then speculation that the two sides would work out a long-term pact (at least one that would buy out Boyd’s three arb-eligible seasons), but the soon-to-be 29-year-old told Jason Beck of MLB.com and other reporters Thursday that no talks have occurred. “No, but that would be cool,” said Boyd, who went to add that his goal is “to win a championship here.” Boyd may be the Tigers’ most valuable trade chip, and he has been the subject of rumors for several months now, but the club wasn’t aggressively shopping him as of December’s Winter Meetings.
  • More on the Tigers’ rotation from Beck, who passes along an update on righty Michael Fulmer’s status as he continues to recover from the Tommy John surgery he underwent last March. The former AL Rookie of the Year is progressing well, as Beck writes that Fulmer’s “pain-free” and scheduled to begin throwing from 120 feet off flat ground next week. However, manager Ron Gardenhire noted Fulmer’s not slated to return to a major league mound until “deep into the summer.” The Tigers set a 15- to 16-month recovery timetable for Fulmer when he went under the knife, so he should be back sometime in June or July if all goes according to plan.
  • There was at least some chance of a reunion between the Pirates and one of their ex-players, Pittsburgh native Neil Walker, before he signed a minor league deal with the in-state rival Phillies on Wednesday. Walker and Pirates GM Ben Cherington engaged in “some cursory conversations,” Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relays, but they didn’t make meaningful progress in those discussions. “We did talk a little bit, but it was pretty vague,” Walker said. “It sounded like Ben had a lot on his plate from the time he took over, and he just wasn’t able to commit a spot.” Walker had a productive run with the Pirates, Mets and Brewers from 2009-17, but his numbers dipped with the Yankees and Marlins during the previous two seasons. The 35-year-old doesn’t expect this to be his last season, though, and he left the door open for a possible return to the Bucs in 2021.

Phillies To Sign Neil Walker

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The Phillies have reached a minor-league deal with veteran infielder Neil Walker, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). There’s a big-league camp invite; other details remain unknown.

Walker, 34, was once a sturdy MLB regular at second base. But he has functioned as more of a part-time corner player — first, third, and the outfield as well — over the past two seasons. He could battle with former Pirates teammate Josh Harrison and others for a utility role in Philly.

It’s a reasonable opportunity, but this still represents yet another suboptimal trip onto the open market for Walker. He took a qualifying offer from the Mets in 2017 and seemingly made good on the bet with another season of solidly above-average hitting. To that point of his career, Walker was a .272/.341/.437 hitter through more than four thousand MLB plate appearances. But he ran into the same headwinds that impacted so many others and ultimate landed with the Yankees on a surprisingly light, late-breaking contract. Hamstring and back issues no doubt hurt his market standing as well.

As it turned out, Walker hit a wall at the plate in the 2018 campaign. He was left with a $2MM deal with the Marlins. The results were improved in 2019, as Walker turned in an approximately league-average .261/.344/.395 output in 381 plate appearances. But that came despite judicious platoon deployment by the Fish. Walker has long carried yawning platoon splits and is best held to facing right-handed pitching.

Neil Walker Open To Re-Signing With Marlins

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Curtis Granderson isn’t the only veteran Marlins role player who’s open to a reunion with the club, it seems. Infielder/outfielder Neil Walker tells MLB.com’s Bill Ladson that he’s “not going to close the door” when it comes to re-signing with the Fish. Like Granderson, Walker relishes the opportunity to share more than a decade’s worth of big league experience with an up-and-coming wave of young players in the Miami clubhouse. “You feel like it’s necessary to share with the younger generation,” said Walker.

While it can’t be certain that any veteran in his mid- or late-30s will find interest in the current free-agent climate, Walker would seem to have a better case for a shot with the Marlins or another big league club in 2020 than Granderson — at least based solely on the pair’s on-field performance. The switch-hitting Walker, who just turned 34, has had a solid year at the plate, hitting .261/.346/.386 with seven homers, 18 doubles and a triple in 373 trips to the plate. He’s primarily served as a first baseman with the Marlins (510 innings) but has also logged 162 innings at third base. Walker, of course, has boatloads of experience at second base, where he’s amassed nearly 9000 innings at the MLB level. Walker also saw some time in the outfield corners during his 2018 stint with the Yankees.

Walker was able to secure a modest one-year, $2MM contract with the Marlins for the 2019 season despite a tepid .219/.309/.354 slash line with the Yankees last year. Given that he’s coming off a much better season at the plate, it stands to reason that Walker should be able to find at least another one-year pact to occupy a bench role — particularly with MLB rosters set to expand from 25 to 26 players beginning next season.

That said, if Walker isn’t able to find offers to his liking this coming winter, he’s already looking ahead to the future. Walker made clear that once he’s done as a player, he’d be interested in calling big league games — be it on TV or on the radio. Eventual broadcast aspirations aside, Walker seems like he has enough left in the tank at the plate to help a club in 2020 — particularly if said team is comfortable moving him around the diamond a bit more than the Marlins did this year. At the very least, it’s not hard to imagine another rebuilding club bringing him aboard as a low-cost bench piece.

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