Reliever Josh Walker was getting the passed-around, hello-goodbye-hello again treatment that isn’t unusual with the Orioles.

Make a waiver claim, lose the player on waivers, claim him again. First baseman Lewin Díaz also experienced a trade in the 2022 offseason in between two Orioles claims. Never take it personally.

Walker came to the organization from the Phillies on Aug. 21, 2025 and was given a $780,000 contract on Nov. 4 as a pre-arbitration player, but the Braves selected him on Nov 13 and the Orioles got him back a month later. They outrighted him on Jan. 7, selected his contract on May 11 and optioned him less than a week later. But at least he was on the 40-man roster.

Perhaps a little dizzy, too, but on the roster.

The Orioles recalled Walker on June 29 while placing Keegan Akin on the injured list, optioned him again July 1, summoned him again three weeks later as the 27th man in a doubleheader, sent him back afterward in a paper move and recalled him the next day.

Nowhere would you find any signs of Walker becoming one of the most important pitchers on the staff. That he’d be the high-leverage left-hander sorely needed in the bullpen with none arriving at the trade deadline.

Walker replaced Andrew Kittredge in the ninth inning Monday afternoon after pinch-hitter Nathaniel Lowe’s three-run homer and recorded the final out for his first major league save. He had 10 in the minors and three in college.

Besides preserving a 6-4 lead, Walker turned in his 14th consecutive scoreless appearance since Aug. 6. Thirteen straight was the longest Orioles streak since Danny Coulombe in 2023. Félix Bautista was the last Oriole with a 14-gamer in 2023.

The most recent Orioles pitcher with a longest stretch was Yennier Cano at 17 games in a row from April 14-May 17, 2023.

This helps to explain the 101 wins and division title.

“Having Walker is definitely a great weapon,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “It’s just cool to see how he’s really taken that role and run with it. Like we talked about this trade deadline and even throughout this season, guys in the bullpen are going to elevate their roles, elevate their floor and take advantage of opportunities. All of our guys are doing that.”

None are former 37th-round draft picks except for Walker, 31, who registered a 6.45 ERA and 1.657 WHIP in 24 games with the Mets and allowed four runs and eight hits in five innings with the Blue Jays last season.

Reflecting on the journey isn’t always comfortable for Walker, and especially while the Orioles are down to their last 16 games and desperately trying to leap into the third Wild Card spot. He made that mistake already and fallen victim again to the fickle nature of the sport.

“I’ve done that plenty in the past, and there’s been so many highs and lows, but I’m just trying to be where my feet are one day after the next and not start getting too deep into where I’ve been, how the past month or so is going, or anything like that,” Walker said.

“It’s just trying to come out with the same mentality every day and just keep doing my job.”

The draft status was a major hurdle for Walker but not the last. He made only two appearances in the minors in 2019 after a spring car accident in Port St. Lucie that caused a shoulder impingement – the doctor wondered how he didn’t shatter his collarbone – and nerve damage in his elbow that required a surgical procedure called a “transposition.”

The entire 2020 minor league season was wiped out due to the pandemic. Walker still hadn’t risen above low A ball.

The Mets selected Walker in 2017 out of the University of New Haven, which has produced a dozen major leaguers, including National League Cy Young winner Steve Bedrosian.

“We joke about that here and there,” Walker said. “When you meet new guys and talk about when you were drafted and yada, yada, we joke how that round doesn’t exist anymore. It’s funny.”

Walker is fortunate that his accident didn’t turn tragic. He was T-boned at a green light while driving to meet the team bus for a trip to Bradenton, where he’d start the fourth game of the Florida State League season.

“Somebody blew the red light for whatever reason,” he said. “Luckily there were no crazy broken bones or anything. It was rehabbing through that whole year and then the offseason. Then I came out the next spring training when everybody was arriving and I threw a live BP. All right, done with rehab. That was my last box to check, and the next day everybody got sent home from COVID.

“That was probably the toughest time was like two years of not playing essentially. So that’s when everything was, holy cow, what’s going to happen? That’s when they were cutting teams down and releasing a lot of guys. So it was a crazy year. But you talk to a bunch of guys and so many dudes have stories of like this and that happening over the course of your careers. So everybody battles adversity and whatnot.

“I think it really goes to not feeling sorry for yourself, and when things don’t go well and it’s easy to get into the weeds mentally and want to be like, ‘This isn’t fair, this is BS,’ and, ‘If only this happened or this didn’t happen.’ So I think all this stuff through perseverance creates resilience and that helps you physically, mentally and everything. Just be prepared to, whether things go good or bad, keep going, keep doing your job, and just being consistent with that mentality and work ethic.”

Everything that’s happened has shaped Walker as a person and a professional. He can have regrets for the rotten luck and wonder why nothing came easily to him, but he also can be grateful for how he’s spun it in his favor in the long run.

“I told myself back then, I was like, ‘I’m just gonna work my butt off and do everything I can to get as good as I can get,’ and that way, however it ends, I’ll be able to sleep at night and not have any regrets, I guess Like, ‘Man, I wish I had worked hard to try to make it happen,’ or anything like that,” Walker said.

“So that’s throughout everything what I fall back on is just, I increased my work ethic to everything I could do, including the little things, and that’s something that I try to keep doing and not get complacent. And that’s what gives you confidence out on the field is, I put in all the work and I did everything. That gives you that much more of an edge when you’re out there and you don’t have to think. You just go trust the work and go do your job.”

Walker isn’t a traditional left-on-left guy. Right-handers are hitting .200/.302/.311 and left-handers are hitting .300/.333/.425. Lefties have slashed .294/.362/.447 in his major league career.

Albernaz can’t live by the numbers, but he didn’t hesitate to bring in Walker Monday after the Guardians announced right-handed Patrick Bailey as a pinch-hitter. Bailey flied out with the count full.

“I’m confident in attacking the strike zone and I’m just expecting the call to come for me and just try to stay ready every time out there,” Walker said. “It feels like the staff trusts me a little bit now, at this point, and I’m just trying to go attack guys and do my job whenever my name’s called.”

It’s called much earlier than in 2017. Walker overcame that slight and everything else thrown at him.

“That’s kind of been the biggest theme of all the ups and downs and the long journey of being a super-late draft pick is try to defy some odds and prove something to myself,” he said. “So I’d say that’s probably the big thing that goes hand-in-hand with that and has carried me to be able to still sustain a career. And hopefully keep it going for as long as I can.”