Christian walker: the hitter nobody is talking about

(Photo by Jasen Vinlove/USA TODAY Sports)

Christian walker: the hitter nobody is talking about

Danny White

The Diamondbacks have one the most underrated offensive players in baseball this year. And no, I’m not talking about Ketel Marte. I am talking about Christian Walker. I am writing this on the morning of August 19th. As of this morning Walker has 29 home runs. With a little under a month and a half left in the season, there’s a chance he could push his home run total to 35-plus.

confusing results

While Walker is having a good season, it’s a surprise his numbers aren’t better. Let’s look at some of the results. Walker is currently sporting a .223/.321/.479 slash line with 29 home runs, a .257 ISO and a 119 wRC+. His walk rate is currently ranked 16th among qualified hitters at 11.9%. He also does not strike out that often at just under 20%. With that in mind you would think that his slash line would be better. The peripherals only get more interesting. His Statcast hard hit rate is 43.7% and he has a fly ball rate of 46.5%. It’s no wonder why he is going to hit 30 home runs. Like I said, you would expect his batting average and on-base percentage to be better than it is. He has been incredibly unlucky with balls in play this year. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is currently .211. That number is way lower than what it has been in previous years. It was .312 in 2019, .317 in 2020 and .307 in 2021. You would expect with how hard he has been hitting the ball that the .211 figure would be up.

Below is Walker’s Baseball Savant profile:

Potential positive regression

Those numbers do not profile as someone with a .223 batting average and a .321 OBP. He is barreling the ball and hitting it hard on a consistent basis. Walker should realistically be one of the better hitters in the NL this year. He was not good last year but has had a real resurgence this year. He will be 32 next year and is still under contract for 2 more years with Arizona. It will be interesting to see what Arizona will do with Walker and somewhat surprising they didn’t try to move him at the deadline this year.

trade candidate

This is probably the highest his value is with 2 years of team control left after this year. He presumably still has his best couple years ahead of him as well given that most baseball players primes are from ages 27-33. Given that he will be 33 by the time he hits free agency and be 34 by the time he would play for whichever team he signs for, he presumably won’t get a big long-term contract. The Diamondbacks will probably not be a contender in the next couple years, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Walker traded this offseason for a prospect or two.

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