Phillies Mailbag: Wilson's Role, Walker, Pitching Staff

We are back once again with the 97.3 ESPN Phillies Mailbag. Each week we take your questions and answer them on The Sports Bash with Mike Gill. Tune in Tuesday afternoons to hear your questions answered on the air. Ask them anytime to @FrankKlose on X or @FrankKlose.bsky.social on BlueSky.

Could the Phillies keep Kody Clemens knowing that in two weeks Weston Wilson returns?
~Greg

The winner of the Phillies bench battle ultimately was Kody Clemens over Millville's Buddy Kennedy. But of course the picture could have been much different had Weston Wilson been in the mix. Wilson was sidelined with a strained oblique.

In the end, the Phillies went Clemens over Kennedy due to his strong play during the Spring and his defensive versaility.

While at first some wondered if Clemens would be a superfluous lefty on a roster and lineup filled with left-handed bats (Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Bryson Stott, Max Kepler, Brandon Marsh) he is the only lefty bat on the bench, if you count out the switch-hitting catcher Rafael Marchan, who probably is not pinch-hitting unless there is an emergency.

Speaking of catchers, it was Garrett Stubbs who went to Triple-A this Spring because he had a minor league option remaining. I think that will be the same fate for Wilson.

Wilson will open the season on the major league injured list, and once he is ready (which might actually be more than two weeks from now as a player with an oblique injury has to stop baseball activity for four weeks and then resume) I think Wilson is headed to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

There, Wilson can play a variety of positions and be ready to step in should the be an injury. Wilson's versatility could make him helpful in the infield or the outfield.

I would keep an eye, however, on Johan Rojas. Rojas has minor league options and if the Phillies do not like what they see from Rojas, he could be swapped for Wilson.

How much rope does Taijuan Walker have in the starting rotation?
~Franco

The 2025 Grapefruit League season started off pretty good for Taijuan Walker. He seemed to get his velocity back, which was blatantly missing last season. His last two starts in Florida were not great. We learned this week that Walker would make the starting rotation to start the year. But for how long?

The Phillies placed Walker in the starting rotation out of necessity, with Ranger Suarez beginning the season on the injured list with a stiff back.

Yesterday, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that Suarez should not be out for long:

“I don’t think it will be long, long,” Dombrowski said. “If things continue to progress the way they are now, he would pitch sometime in April. But we’re going to be slow. We’re not going to bring him back until he feels good. And he feels good now, but now, we’re in that stage where we have to build him up.

“It could be very quick, but even when we start [building up], it’s three weeks or something at least.”

Dombrowski called this a "good opportunity" for Walker.

Walker should make his first start on April 2, with the Phillies moving Zack Wheeler up a day with two off days in the early going. Suarez is eligible to be activated on April 8, though if he is out three weeks, he would be out another week.

So I would imagine that Walker would have a good four starts, if not five, to show he belongs. If they are absolutely disasterous, they could turn to long man Joe Ross. Ross did not finished the Spring Grapefrult League season stretched out to start.

I would imagine they'll have Ross ready to relieve Walker as they did in Walker's final start.

I think unless Walker is a unmitigated disaster, they will roll with him until Suarez is ready.

I also would like to point out that in the last couple starts especially of Spring Training, pitchers tend to work on the pitches they need to work on most. They may not have been typical Taijuan Walker pitch plans. So I will withold judgment until I see him pitch next week.

Who has developed new pitches beside Jesus Luzardo?
~Michael

The biggest Phillies offseason acquisition was former National League East foe Jesus Luzardo. In Luzardo's time with the Marlins he came into his own, posting really strong seasons in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Luzardo was bit by the injury bug. He is healthy, with the Phillies, and making adjustments.

As chronicled by Todd Zolecki of MLB.com early in Spring Training, Luzardo complemented his slider - now called the "gyro slider" with a new slider that is more of what they are calling a "sweeper" in present-day lingo.

Zolecki wrote:

Here is how they compared:

Gyro-slider: They averaged 2.1 inches of glove-side movement. They averaged 0.0 inches of glove-side movement last season. He didn’t throw one last season with more than 4.0 inches of glove-side movement.
Sweeper: The two averaged 5.6 inches of glove-side movement with the max at 6.7 inches.Luzardo said the sweeper remains a work in progress, but it’s a big difference.

The Phillies pitching staff is led by Caleb Cotham.

The Phillies pitching leadership saw Bryan Kaplan leave for the Arizona Diamondbacks this past offseason. Mark Lowy replaced him in the assistant pitching coach role. Lowy and Kaplan worked together at Cressey Sports Performance, a sports skills academy in Florida and Massachusetts.

Besides Luzardo, Zolecki noted that Jose Alvarado was working on his curveball, and Cristopher Sanchez was working on improving his slider.

Other than that: most of this Phillies pitching staff has returned from last year and the same philosophy should be applied.

I will add, I would be that Cotham and Lowy are eager to get their hands on Carlos Hernandez, the newly-acquired reliever from Kansas City.

Hernandez has been known for his high-velocity, but inconsistency. Though he is right-handed, I think about two recent Phillies projects: Alvarado and Sanchez.

Both lefties were known to be high-velocity, high inconsistency. Sanchez became an All-Star starter and Alvarado became a dominant arm in 2022 and 2023 (and he is looking that way once again in 2025).

I think Luzardo will be worth watching this season, and I also am eager to see what they do with Hernandez.