Walker? I hardly know her!

You can't get that kind of quality content just anywhere, folks

Through his first eight games of the season, Ryan Walker was just as outstanding as he’d been in 2024. Coming off a season in which he had 99 strikeouts against just 18 walks in 80 innings en route to a 1.91 ERA, Walker hadn’t lost a step. In those 8 games, Walker pitched 8 innings — all Giants wins — struck out 6, and walked just 1. His ERA was 1.13, his FIP 2.33, and everything was fantastic. Lose a step? In this economy? Walker was the steady guy who took over after Camilo Doval faltered. No way would any part of that go wrong.

And then he blew a save in Anaheim and Ryan Walker possibly forgot what steps even are.

I’m sure you remember this all pretty clearly, but I’ll go through it anyway, because I love a good setup that makes my readers miserable. Coming off a nondescript save against the Angels the night before, Walker went 3-2 against Mike Trout to lead off the ninth, had the call go against him, and then fell apart. He gave up a single to Jorge Soler, got a strikeout, then gave up a single, a hit by pitch, and finally a game-winning double. Three days later, against Milwaukee, Walker came in with a 4-run lead to straighten himself out, and then promptly gave up three baserunners and two runs before being removed for Doval, who got the last two outs for the save.

Walker then had an excellent inning in a non-save situation against the Rangers, then a shakier inning against the Rangers in which he gave up two hits but no runs, an easy save six days later against the Rockies, and then two days ago, another blown save, this one against the Cubs, when he walked two and gave up a single before being removed with two outs for Erik Miller, who allowed a Cubs runner to score, tying the game, but didn’t allow the winning run to score.

Then yesterday, Walker allowed the leadoff runner on before promptly getting a double play and another groundout to end the game. Easy! Had it the whole way.

After yesterday’s game, Walker said, “Sometimes, going through hardships, you really battle with having faith in yourself and confidence. Having the faith from my manager means a lot.” And yes, Melvin did choose to put Walker back out there after he blew another save; yes, he did burn Doval in the seventh inning, ensuring that the ninth would be Walker’s; yes, he has given nondescript “Boy everyone is great!” quotes to the media since Walker started struggling instead of more specific “Yeah, he has to figure some stuff out” quotes.

But the move on Tuesday to go to Miller spoke a lot louder than any other words could. Walker is obviously not quite right, and so Melvin has to have contingency plans. If the Giants were up 5-3 going into the ninth with Walker on the mound in 2024 and a few baserunners got on, Melvin would have rightfully trusted him to get out of it. Instead, it’s 2025, and Melvin rightfully didn’t.

There are a few statistical issues we can point to this year. Last year, Walker was getting swings on 29% of pitches out of the zone; this year, he’s at 22%. Last year, batters were making contact on 81% of pitches they swung at in the zone; this year, it’s 90%. The percentage of his pitches thrown that are swinging strikes has plummeted from 12% last year to 7% this year. This is likely why he’s not getting as many strikeouts. Last year, Walker struck out 32% of the batters he faced; this year, he’s at 26%.

Now, a 26% K% is by no means bad — in fact, it’s well above average — but it’s not elite. Most of his numbers are actually above average but not elite, which is a stark comparison to last year, when almost everything Walker did was top tier. Just look at the difference here:

Even if Ryan Walker is still an above-average major league pitcher, that’s a huge decline in almost every category. He’s still great at allowing low exit velocity and avoiding hard-hit balls, but otherwise, he’s not in best-of-the-best territory anymore.

Some of this, if we’re being honest, could be due to overuse last year. We saw a similar issue with Camilo Doval last year, who was coming off a year when he’d thrown a good number of innings, but also his arm had been stressed by packing a lot of games into a short window, or by warming up without entering a game, which still affects the body. Only now is Doval starting to look like his old self again, and some of that is likely due to his getting more rest last year, being sent to the minors where his arm was treated more carefully, and getting enough rest.

Well, last year, Walker pitched more innings than Doval ever has. Walker threw 80 innings last season, seventh in the majors, and of the guys ahead of him on that list, two were basically replacement level, two are currently injured and haven’t made their 2025 debuts, two (including Sean Hjelle) are in the minors, and one is currently having the best season of his career, and congrats on that to Luke Weaver. Guys who throw that many innings out of the bullpen are rarely the team’s prized arms, because that kind of stress on an arm can have lingering effects. It’s entirely possible that we’re seeing those effects right now in Ryan Walker.

What’s the answer, then? He’s probably not hurt, and he’s probably still one of the organization’s 8 best relievers, so they probably should keep him in the majors. Should the closer role still be his? Well, that’s trickier. He does not seem like the best reliever on the team right now. Does that mean that Doval should get his old job back? Or should it go to Randy Rodriguez, who’s looked electric so far this year? Or should the Giants keep Walker there so that they can use Doval and Rodriguez in tighter spots when necessary? And how do Hayden Birdsong and Kyle Harrison fit in? Both of them have looked great out of the bullpen, so should they get some of those high leverage innings?

It’s tough to say what to do. Ryan Walker’s probably not going to struggle this badly all year — his velocity is fine, his movement is very similar to last year, and his underlying numbers still suggest that he’s a good pitcher. But he’s also probably not going to regain his 2024 form this season. Maybe it would be a good idea to take some of the pressure off of him to maximize what he does both this season and next season. Or maybe that pressure is what’s helping him get through this tough stretch, which is the kind of tough stretch that every reliever will have multiple times over his career.

For now, the Giants will probably keep Walker as their closer, without giving him too much rope. He’ll either shape up, or they’ll bring someone else in to clean up his messes enough times that they’ll no longer let him make messes in the ninth inning. That’s no fun for anyone, but it’s how baseball works. It’s your job until your performance tells your manager it’s not, and Ryan Walker is a lot closer to that than anyone ever likes to be.