Christian Walker celebrates a walk-off home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers in late April. … [+] (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
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Arizona first baseman Christian Walker entered his “walk” year — he is eligible for free agency in 2025 — with no intention of walking away from the franchise that gave him his first real chance.
“The focus right now is winning the World Series with this group of guys,” Walker said as the Diamondbacks’ began defense of their 2023 National League pennant.
“Obviously this is my team. These are my guys. I am very familiar with the D-Backs and happy with my experience here. All that being said, the only thing I can do is focus on winning games right now and being the best version of myself for my teammates.
“What happens in the next few months happens.”
Whatever happens, Walker can expect a hefty pay raise, perhaps in the $20 million per year range, although his camp has set no expectations and that figure is speculation driven by market history.
Whatever the price, it could be considered a just reward for a player who was blocked by Chris Davis and Joey Votto early in his career before embracing the grind and rising to the top of his class in Arizona.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo has called Christian Walker “a true Diamondback at the core.” (Photo … [+] by Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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“He stands for everything we believe in,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “There is a passion for learning every day. He cares about his teammates and he cares about his coaches. He cares about everything that is right.”
The economics of the major league game swivel dramatically toward the player after he has a full six years of major league service time, which Walker will accrue this season. It is especially true in his case.
Walker’s career arc has brought him to a place where he has become one of the premier two-way first basemen in the major leagues — a power-hitting, Gold Glove presence on a team that made an unexpected run to the 2023 World Series.
The Diamondbacks gave Walker his first real opportunity in 2019 after they opened first base by trading Paul Goldschmidt to the St. Louis Cardinals in a deal that was made to avoid the cost of Goldschmidt’s impending free agency and add future pieces in Luke Weaver and Carson Kelly. Walker alone remains.
Christian Walker has won the last two NL Gold Gloves at first base and is well-positioned for a … [+] three-peat. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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Walker, who turned 33 on opening day and celebrated with a two-run double, is on pace to at least match his breakout 2022 and 2023 seasons, when he had 69 homers and 197 RBIs while winning two Gold Gloves.
He has 16 homers and 49 RBIs this season, with four homers and eight RBIs in his last five games. His OPS again compares favorably with Goldschmidt and the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso, just below the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman.
Alonso will be the most coveted first baseman on the market after hitting 86 homers with 249 RBIs in 2022-23, and he is shooting high. He has turned down a seven-year, $158 million contract offer, according to the New York Post, and USA Today reported that he is seeking a multi-year deal that will hit $200 million.
Walker might be the most desirable remaining candidate at that position. He is playing this season at $10.9 million after the sides avoided arbitration last winter, a figure well below both his performance level and the highest paid at his position.
Paul Goldschmidt’s five-year, $130 million extension (a $26 million average annual value) signed in the spring of 2019 that expires after this season could be an applicable comp, although Goldschmidt was two years younger at a similar stage
Paul Goldschmidt and Christian Walker have been the most productive first basemen in Arizona … [+] franchise history. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
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Walker’s numbers since the start of the 2022 season are similar to Goldschmidt’s, and Walker was three years younger.
Walker has 85 homers, 246 RBIs, a .486 slugging percentage, an .817 OPS and two Gold Gloves and is in line for a third. He led NL first baseman in defensive runs saved through the second week of this season, according to both FanGraphs and baseball-reference.com.
Goldschmidt, who will play at 37 next season, has 68 homers, 222 RBis, a .480 slugging percentage and a .847 OPS in the last two-plus seasons. He was the 2022 NL MVP when he hit 35 homers and won the last of his four Gold Gloves.
José Abreu’s three-year, $50 million contract extension with the Chicago White Sox before the 2020 season also could be a relevant comp. He played that year at 33.
Abreu’s second free-agent contract, since before his age-36 season, did not age as well. He was released last week in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract signed with Houston before 2023.
Christian Walker is on pace for a third straight 30-homer, 95-RBI season. (Photo by Lachlan … [+] Cunningham/Getty Images)
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The Diamondbacks are still in play, of course. They could offer a long-term extension, although there has been no public movement. The team has franchise-record $171 million payroll this season, although there are ways to trim in the offseason.
They certainly will give Walker a qualifying offer, a procedural move that would bind Walker to them for the 2025 season while preserving their right to draft choice compensation should he sign elsewhere.
The qualifying offer was $20.325 million last season, the average of the top 150 major league salaries as calculated at the end of the season, and it normally goes up every year. The prospect of a one-year bump was not enough to convince any of the six players who received a qualifying offer last winter to forgo the multi-year lure of free agency, however.
Free agency or not, Walker seems in line for a 100 percent salary increase in 2025.
“I prepare every year to be the absolute best version of myself, regardless of what is happening in arbitration or free agency or anything like that,” Walker said.
“The arbitration situation is similar in a sense that to you are getting paid on what you’ve done. You are earning the next year very much. There can be a lot of pressure and weird dynamics with it. But I feel like if I show up every day and be my best for my teammates, they everything else will settle as it does.”
Christian Walker has four homers sand eight RBIs in his last five games. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty … [+] Images)
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