The last time I wrote about Adam Brett Walker II was to celebrate his success in Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League playing for the Yomiuri Giants. His 2022 stint in NPB represented his second shot at the major league level. His initial shot had come in Serie del Caribe in 2021 for Caimanes de Barranquilla and as his .000/.000/.000 slash line with seven strikeouts in 11 plate appearances can attest, he missed that shot. But, in 2022 he put up respectable numbers for the Giants, slashing .271/.306/.515 with 23 home runs in 428 plate appearances. When school took hold of my life and I stopped checking in on Walker almost daily, he was doing great.
Today, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, of NPB’s Pacific League, released Walker. This followed a steep decline with the Giants and an inability to ever get on any sort of solid footing with the Hawks. The 2024 season saw Walker slash .169/.182/.262 with one home run and 19 strikeouts in 66 plate appearances. How did we go from Walker seeming to have finally figured things out and proving he belonged in the major leagues to him being 33 years old and likely done with his major league career? Adjustments, both those of opposing NPB pitchers and the lack of adjustments made by Walker himself.
Walker’s initial foray to Japan was interesting because he seemed to be a changed hitter. Or, rather, the adjustments he had made with the American Association’s Milwaukee Milkmen carried over to his first year with the Giants. He still had massive power and he still had far too big of a swing, but he was striking out less and laying off his archnemesis, the slider. Following his 2022 success, NPB pitchers made the decision to not cave to Walker’s patience. They peppered him with sliders and breaking pitches and hedged their bets on the fact that at the end of the day, Walker is a free swinger who can’t resist the urge to unleash his big loping swing at anything that looks like a savory pitch.
NPB pitchers identified the hole in Walker’s approach and in his swing. They never relented once they identified these holes and Walker failed to adjust back. That’s what being a successful major leaguer is when all is said and done, adjusting when opposing players have identified something about you that they can exploit to their benefit. Perhaps Walker can’t adjust back, there exists the very real chance that he simply cannot mentally and physically make the sort of adjustment that is needed to continue playing at the major league level.
I’m not sure what the future holds for Walker. He’s nearing the tail end of his career. Maybe another NPB club will pick him up and he’ll get another shot at the major leagues. Perhaps he will find his way back to the Milkmen or another unaffiliated club and finish his career raking at a lower level. One thing is for certain, Walker can’t continue to do what he is doing, he needs to make some adjustments and he needs to make them now.
Lead photo courtesy of Orixbaseballclub – Wikimedia Commons
