The Houston Astros have made another big offseason move, picking up free agent first baseman Christian Walker, per multiple reports. Walker and the Astros have agreed on a three-year, $60 million deal, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.
Walker, who spent the past eight seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, was ranked No. 10 on Yahoo Sports’ list of the top 50 free agents this offseason. The 33-year-old first baseman was something of a late bloomer in baseball, as he did not become a consistent starter for the D-backs until 2019, when he was 28 years old.
Walker won a Gold Glove in each of the past three seasons, sealing his reputation as one of the best first basemen in the league.
During the 2024 season, he hit 26 home runs and had a .251 batting average. But defense was where the infielder really shined: Walker finished the year with a league-leading .998 fielding percentage. He played in 129 games last season, missing time in August due to an oblique injury.
The move comes as Houston is trying to switch things up for next season, and it likely means free agent 3B Alex Bregman won’t return to the team. Nightengale reported that the Yankees also had interest in Walker and will now likely shift their focus to Paul Goldschmidt and Carlos Santana.
The Astros traded All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs last week. In the trade, Houston received infielder Isaac Paredes, pitcher Hayden Wesneski and prospect Cam Smith.
For Walker, this lucrative deal is the culmination of quite the baseball journey. His power prowess dates all the way back to his amateur days, first as a Pennsylvania high schooler who won a 2009 home run derby that also famously featured Bryce Harper and then as an offensive force in the SEC for the University of South Carolina. But after being selected by Baltimore in the fourth round of the 2012 draft, Walker’s ascent toward major-league-slugger status slowed considerably. He hit well in the minors but never well enough to be considered a fundamental part of the Orioles’ future. He had a few big-league cameos with Baltimore but was designated for assignment during spring training before the 2017 season.
Walker then bounced among a few teams on waivers — first Atlanta, then Cincinnati — before landing with Arizona shortly before Opening Day. With Paul Goldschmidt still in the fold for the D-backs, it was another two seasons before Walker finally got his shot as the team’s every-day first baseman. But once Goldschmidt was traded to St. Louis, Walker seized the starting job in 2019 and never looked back.
Walker was solid in his first two seasons as the Snakes’ regular first baseman, but his third campaign in 2021 was marred by injuries. He bounced back in a big way in 2022 with his best season yet, mashing a career-high 36 home runs and winning his first Gold Glove at first. Long known for his powerful bat, Walker had also begun to establish himself as an exceptional defender. He didn’t win his first Gold Glove — the first of three in a row — until that 2022 season, but Walker rated in the 98th percentile in Outs Above Average in his first full season in 2019. And though first base is considered at the bottom of the defensive spectrum, Walker has a well-earned reputation as the rare difference-maker with the glove at his position.
More importantly, he has continued to mash. Walked followed his full-blown breakout in 2022 with a similar season in 2023 as a key cog in the middle of the lineup for an Arizona team that shocked the world en route to a pennant. An oblique strain cost Walker a month of the 2024 season, but he again was one of the driving forces behind one of baseball’s best offenses in his platform year.
With the infield formidably reinforced, Houston must now turn its attention to its unsettled outfield situation, with Tucker no longer the anchor in right. Yordan Alvarez has averaged 45-50 games in left field over the past four seasons, but manager Joe Espada spoke at the winter meetings about his preference to use Alvarez even less frequently in the outfield moving forward, in hopes of more consistent durability for the fearsome slugger.
That would leave all three outfield spots uncertain, with incumbents Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick both coming off particularly poor years offensively. Meyers’ excellent defense is likely worth consistent playing time in center, but the corner spots remain in flux.
Does Houston have the appetite for another addition via free agency or trade to address this? That could be the difference between the Astros entering 2025 with an offense that looks markedly better than their 2024 group and beginning the season with one that is merely constructed differently. Read more. — Shusterman
