10 former Blue Jays who are playing in the 2024 MLB postseason

Philadelphia Phillies (1)

Another one of the most dangerous clubs still alive in this postseason, the Phillies were the No. 2 seed in the NL but have excellent odds of making it back to the World Series this year. The club is armed to teeth on offense and on the pitching side of things.

Only one of their players previously spent time in the big leagues with the Blue Jays: right-handed pitcher Taijuan Walker.

Walker, now 32 years of age, is under contract with the Phillies on a four-year deal he signed with them prior to last season. He's just wrapping up the second of four years and has struggled so badly that it's almost worth wondering if the Phillies should eat his salary and cut him altogether.

The 12-year veteran made 19 appearances (15 starts) for the Phillies this year, going 3-7 with a ghastly 7.10 ERA, 6.94 FIP and 57 ERA+. The ERA+ alone suggests that his overall production was 43 percent below league-average. That's suboptimal.

Walker hasn't always been this type of pitcher though. At various points throughout his career, he's been an All-Star-caliber starter, even making the ASG back in 2021 with the Mets. He's struggled with durability over the years, but it wasn't so long ago that he was actually a decent big league starter.

Back in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Blue Jays got a brief glimpse of him, as he made six starts for them down the stretch. In that time, he went 2-1 with a 1.37 ERA in 26.1 innings of work. He struck out 25 batters and walked 11 while allowing just four earned runs.

Walker, like Banda, Berti, Boyd and Leiter before him, didn't get a ton of playing time on the Blue Jays, but he still qualifies for this list either way.

It remains to be seen whether he'll make the Phillies' playoff roster or not, but it'd make sense for him to squeak his way into the back-end of the roster over the likes of someone like Kolby Allard, who is less experienced and has never appeared in a postseason game.