The Pirates re-signed a lefty Josh Walker to a minor league deal earlier this week, as noted by Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. Walker was traded from the Mets to the Pirates at the trade deadline last month but was assigned to work soon. Walker suffered an undisclosed injury shortly after joining the Pirates, and as a result, could not be released when Pittsburgh designated him for assignment. As such, the club apparently released Walker before re-signing him to a minor league deal to clear his spot on the 40-man roster while still keeping him in the organization.
Walker, 29, was selected by the Mets in the 37th round of the 2017 draft. The lefty struggled to stay on the field early in his professional career with 29 combined team appearances from 2017 to 2019, most of which came in relief. After a canceled minor league season in 2020, Walker returned to work as a first baseman in the minors and quickly rose through the major league ranks but hit a wall in Triple-A, where he struggled to a 5.19 ERA with a strikeout rate. in only 15.8% of the first nine.
That difficulty as a starter in the minors combined with an injury-ravaged 2022 season saw Walker return to a relief role in 2023. He put together a dominant performance in Triple-A that year, posting a stellar 1.84 ERA. in 29 1/3 innings while striking out an amazing 33.3% of the batters he faced. That excellent performance in the minors was enough to earn Walker his first major league call-up at age 28 last year, but the lefty struggled as he allowed eleven runs, nine of which were earned, and a league-leading 12.5% of the batters faced in innings. in the top ten league last year. 2024 was more of the same during his time in the Mets organization, as he struck out 31% of the batters he faced with a solid 2.84 ERA but walked 10.9% of opponents with a lackluster 5.10 ERA.
Walker looked like he might be able to make a run for the Pirates at some point this year but the aforementioned injury seems to have sidelined him, at least for now. With few details available about Walker's injury and his return schedule it's unclear if and when he'll pitch again this season, but with less than a year of major league action and one minor league option left it's easy to imagine the lefty. to be an interesting long-term piece given his recent success at Triple-A.
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