By Ken Rosenthal, Chandler Rome and Noah Furtado
Christian Walker, the reigning three-time National League Gold Glove Award-winning first baseman, is in serious talks with the Houston Astros about signing with the organization.
A league source notes that the two sides are “down the road.” No deal is in place, but the signing of Walker would have a monumental impact for the Astros, almost certainly signaling the end of free agent third baseman Alex Bregman’s run with the team. Walker would play first and Isaac Paredes third. The move also would close off the possibility of the Astros acquiring third baseman Nolan Arenado, who blocked a trade to Houston this week.
A late bloomer, Walker, 33, has developed into one of the league’s most well-rounded first basemen. With 32 home runs per 150 games and an .800-plus OPS over the past three seasons, the No. 15 free agent on The Athletic’s 2024-25 Top 40 Big Board provides above-average power at the plate and elite ability in the field. Walker’s 14 Outs Above Average paced all NL first basemen a season ago.
Walker would come off the board before his fellow free-agent first baseman Pete Alonso. At 30, Alonso was projected by The Athletic’s Tim Britton ahead of free agency to receive a five-year, $130-million deal. Britton projected Walker at two years, $44 million.
Walker made $2.6 million in 2022, $6.5 million in 2023 and $10.9 million in 2024.
If it does happen, Walker should provide stability for a position that plagued Houston last season. According to FanGraphs, the Astros extracted minus-1.4 wins above replacement from their first basemen during the regular season. Only the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds received less value. The team released José Abreu in June amid his unending decline and — in his absence — relied on a platoon of Jon Singleton against right-handed pitching and one of its catchers against left-handed pitching.
Most players become eligible free agents for the first time in their 20s. Walker, who wasn’t an everyday player until age 28 and will turn 34 by the start of next season, turned down his $21.05 million qualifying offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks in search of a multi-year deal.
Walker appeared in only a handful of games across two seasons for the Baltimore Orioles, who drafted him in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB Draft, before they designated him for assignment in 2017. He bounced around on waivers from team to team for a bit, until the Diamondbacks finally claimed him. It wasn’t until 2019 that he became a mainstay in the majors.
Six years later, he holds the sixth-highest bWAR (15.3) in Diamondbacks franchise history.
“You look around and you think, ‘A lot of my best friends are in this clubhouse,’” Walker said on Sept. 30, after he and his Diamondbacks teammates watched the infamous Mets-Braves doubleheader that bounced them from the postseason on their day off.
“This is all I know as far as my big-league experience, and it gets emotional.”
Walker was a key figure during the Diamondbacks’ improbable run to their second-ever World Series appearance in 2023, when they bested the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 in the NL Wild Card Series, swept the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and beat the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies in seven games.
(Top photo of Christian Walker: Norm Hall/Getty Images)
