I had been reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by the music producer Rick Rubin. Somewhere in there he talks about how his role in any production is to get the artist to be ‘who they are’. He says, “No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you”.
I remembered this back in June, on day two of the London Series, as Taijuan Walker pitched well into the 6th inning and I’d started to see murmurings online that maybe, just maybe, the Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham had ‘fixed Taijuan’. What exactly is it that pitching coaches do? I wondered. I mean, what do they do at a Major League level where, presumably, pitchers already have a pretty good sense of how to throw a baseball.
Cotham, who has been with the Phillies since 2019 and pitched with the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds before moving over to coaching, is noted for his success at turning pitchers around. Matt Strahm, who threw well in London and has become a trusted arm in the Phillies bullpen was thought of last year as a Caleb Cotham ‘project’. Strahm is a success story, Walker less so.
Going into the London Series Taijuan Walker was already a toothache for the Philadelphia front office. He had struggled badly enough during the 2023 season that coach Rob Thomson sat him in October, a move that led to his “Disrespect is at an all time high” outburst on X. He failed to prove himself during Spring and started the 2024 season on the injured list. Whatever glimmer of hope we saw in Walker’s London outing has long since burned out. After a season of failed starts and unfound pitches, the recent 10-0 loss to the Houston Astros may well be enough to push the Phillies into redesigning their starting rotation for good. Something that has been long overdue.
A big part of the problem has been Walker’s contract. The Phillies signed Walker in 2022, one week after Matt Strahm, to a four year deal worth $72 million. With two years left to go, they still owe around $39 million and as keeping Walker in the rotation no longer seems viable, they need to find a solution fast. Is there another team out there looking to torpedo their pitching staff and millstone their finances? Let’s hope so.
While Cotham has been quoted as saying the team would sooner weather the storm than make any dramatic moves in August, the fact they are rumoured to have been pursuing White Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet at the trade deadline, suggests that this is a storm the Phillies have long seen coming.
In previous seasons the Phils have opted for a six-man rotation in August, allowing more breathing time for each of their starting pitchers as they close out the season and look towards October. Was this part of the plan for Crochet? To bring him in as a sixth starter and give Walker more time to work things out?
Whatever the plan was the White Sox weren’t prepared to let Crochet go and the Phillies opted instead for left-handed relief pitcher Tanner Banks.
That they stayed to rummage deeper into the White Sox pitching bin may well be testament to the talent of veteran pitching coach Dave Duncan. Duncan, often credited as one of the greatest pitching coaches of all time, is currently pitching consultant with the Chicago White Sox.
Duncan is said to have revolutionised the role partly by keeping detailed notes and records on every opposing hitter and partly by his ability to read the character and mood of his pitchers and to adjust his approach and techniques accordingly.
Caleb Cotham, who is no stranger to a binder full of numbers, frames this approach slightly differently. As he puts it, part of his challenge is not to tell a pitcher how to pitch but to give them “..strategies and mental models about how to think..” In Matt Gelb’s words for the Athletic, “The best coaches are the ones who can make players think they’ve crafted an idea on their own.”
Perhaps this is what Rubin is getting at when he says ‘…The true instrument is you.” and the answer to my question is then that the pitching coach must be a weatherman, psychologist, mathematician, poet, and ball player all rolled into one. Cotham can point the way, but Walker needs to work this one out for himself.
With no obvious exit sign for now, the Phillies will most likely need to own the mistake and file Walker’s contract alongside Scott Kingery’s under, ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’.
Whoever fills the gap at fifth starter, It may well fall on Cotham to read the mood and character of Taijuan Walker and to make him feel that going down to pitch in the minors is a wonderful idea and one that he has arrived at of his own volition.
UPDATE: As of Thursday evening, 29 August, the Phillies are moving Taijuan Walker to the bullpen.
TOM BAKER is the Philadelphia Phillies correspondent for Bat Flips and Nerds. You can read more of his articles here and follow him on X (Twitter) @TomBaker1981.
Featured image credit: Mitchell Leff via GETTY IMAGES
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