Taijuan Walker has swapped out his cutter for a slider, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports.

Walker has swapped out his cutter for a slider, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports.

Analysis:

This is a fairly big surprise, as Walker's cutter was considered to be one of his best pitches, if not the best. If that slider can deliver a strong secondary option to pair with his great fastball velocity, Walker is that much more scary as a prospect. There's also a good chance he just changed his cutter grip to create a sharper break and realized he now had a slider. It's just odd that a player with one toe in the majors is giving up on one of the pitches that got him there.