Let’s hop into a time machine and travel back to February of this year, when free agent starting pitcher Taijuan Walker signed a two-year, $20 million contract with the Mets. If you told your past self the final numbers that would ultimately be on Walker’s stat line for the 2021 season—a 7-11 record with a 4.47 ERA over 159 inning in 30 games pitched—you’d probably say it sounded about right. Certainly not the best outcome we could have hoped for from a pitcher who has shown flashes of being better than that—say, in his career-best year with the Diamondbacks in 2017—but also not the worst case scenario for the first full season from a pitcher since coming back from Tommy John surgery.
It was a tale of two halves for Taijuan Walker in 2021
