FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -Jamie Walker appeared in a franchise-record 81 games with the Baltimore Orioles last season, serving as setup man, left-handed specialist and closer.
This season, he plans to add another task to his workload: clubhouse leader.
Walker, 36, is the oldest player on a team in the midst of a youth movement. He has no desire to be a father figure, but plans to make sure the kids around him act like major leaguers.
“I try to lead by example, but I will become vocal if I see something that needs to be changed, or if I see a young guy not being professional,” he said. “That means on and off the field. We’re role models.”
A guy could learn a lot from Walker, who never begged out of an assignment or asked for a day off. As part of a beleaguered bullpen that employed 21 different players, Walker emerged as the pitcher of choice as those around him faltered or succumbed to injury.
“There were no other options, none whatsoever,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said.
Were it not for Walker, Baltimore might have lost 105 games. He went 3-2 with a solid 3.23 ERA and seven saves on a team that finished 69-93.
“Physically, it’s a draining situation to pitch as much as he did,” Trembley said. “But when you move him from one situation to another, the mental fatigue that goes along with it and the mental energy you have to use, that takes its toll on guys as well.”
Yet Walker always made himself available, and after he got through one inning he asked to make it two.
“There were times when he would want to pitch, and I would tell him, ‘No, you’re not,”’ Trembley said. “I would take him out and he would come in and say he could go longer.”
Incredibly, Walker never developed a sore arm. And, although the seven-year veteran is willing to duplicate that workmanlike performance again this season, Trembley intends to use Walker as a setup man or when the Orioles need a big out with a left-handed batter at the plate.
“We expect him, along with Chad Bradford, to be a big part of the club this season. Obviously, our intent is to get those two guys back in the roles they should be in,” Trembley said. “What Jamie does for us is stability, a guy you can count on.”
Walker didn’t walk a batter in his first appearance this spring, but yielded five runs in two-thirds of an inning against Florida. It was an uncharacteristic performance, although the timing couldn’t have been better.
“In the grand scheme, I’m glad that wasn’t opening day at Camden Yards. It was opening day in the Grapefruit League,” he said. “But I didn’t want him to take me out. I wanted to finish the inning.”
Of course he did. That’s how Walker plays the game.
“I told the veteran guys the very first day that, if things weren’t getting done in the clubhouse the way they wanted it, it was up to them to step up and say it,” Trembley said. “Knowing the type of person Walker is and how he does things, if you watch how he does his drills and how he runs, he’s the right guy to do that.”
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