Christian Walker

After spending parts of five seasons at Triple-A (and destroying the PCL for a couple years), Walker finally got his chance at full-time at-bats in the big leagues with the Diamondbacks in 2019. He smashed 29 homers with an 11.1 BB% over 603 PA. The sequel is never as good and Walker finished with an OPS below .800 in 2020, but he quietly had 18 doubles, fourth most in MLB. His hard-hit rate held firm at close to 49%, per Statcast, ranking in the top 11% of the league, and he hit nearly 20 points better vs. RHP than he did in 2019. Walker has not hit lefties particularly well so far in the majors (.231/.337/.447), and as he enters his age-30 season, he still has work to do if he wants to stick around and stave off the "Quad-A" label. Arizona does not project to have a competitive team in 2020 and Walker should have plenty of chances to right the ship and establish himself as a legitimate, corner-worthy bat.

The departure of Paul Goldschmidt last offseason opened up the job at first base in Arizona, and Walker began the season in a short-side platoon role alongside Jake Lamb after spending the last few years looking like a Quad-A player. Lamb went down with an injury in early April and Walker immediately staked his claim to the starting role with a .994 OPS through the first 28 games. He did struggle at times but still posted a 112 wRC+ while starting 132 games at first base, and he shaved his strikeout rate to just 22.8% in the second half. He mashed 29 home runs and had an 11.1 BB%, which represents the best mark of his professional career. Walker is more or less a prototypical power-hitting first baseman and actually had reverse splits, hitting for a better BA and SLG against righties than lefties. He should enter spring training as the Diamondbacks' top option at first base.

Walker is 28 years old and has managed 99 plate appearances at the big-league level over the past four seasons, owning a .163/.226/.388 line for his efforts. Meanwhile, he has amassed 2,282 plate appearances in Triple-A and has a .279/.344/.494 line there. This is the tale of a Quad-A player in that he has been able to hang around on the 40-man roster for this long, but has not yet had any opportunity to stick in the majors. Now that Paul Goldschmidt is no longer in Arizona, perhaps Walker will get a chance to show he can hit big-league pitching, though the Diamondbacks are expected to slot Jake Lamb in as the starter at first base to begin the season. Walker is out of options, so he has to make the 25-man roster or be exposed to waivers and take his Triple-A mashing to another organization.

Walker earned Pacific Coast League MVP honors in 2017, setting new career-highs in homers (32), RBI (114), steals (5), slugging percentage (.597) and OPS (.979). In previous runs at the Triple-A level, Walker's strikeout rate hovered around 25 percent, but he trimmed the number to an impressive 17.6 percent last season, while drawing walks at a career-high 10.3 percent clip. In a September callup, Walker homered twice in 15 plate appearances, but he was used primarily as a right-handed bat off the bench with expanded rosters. Although he's played regularly in left field as recently as 2016, the D-backs were deploying Walker almost exclusively at first base in Reno, a position where he's blocked by Paul Goldschmidt indefinitely in Arizona. With nothing left to prove at Triple-A, the only question is whether he'll get a chance at the big-league level in 2018. If the D-backs were to decide that Yasmany Tomas is a sunk cost, it would go a long way toward opening the door for Walker to get that chance.

With Chris Davis occupying first base for the foreseeable future and first base prospect Trey Mancini waiting in the wings, the Orioles decided to move Walker to the outfield in order to open up an easier path to the big leagues. Walker again began his season with Triple-A Norfolk, as he did in 2014 and 2015, as well. His development has seemed to level off over the past couple of seasons at Triple-A. His walk rate has decreased in each of the last two seasons and though his average and slugging percentage both ticked up in 2016, his overall wRC+ remained stagnant at 116. Walker will be 26 years old by the time Opening Day rolls around, and it's looking increasingly likely that his potential MLB impact may be limited. He is on the 40-man roster and may see the field for the Orioles this year, but his long-term fantasy outlook is bleak.

Walker showed he mastered Double-A in 2014 before stalling in 44 Triple-A games. He spent the entire 2015 season at Triple-A and produced a solid but not outstanding season, closely mirroring his Triple-A numbers from the prior season. Walker has 31 September plate appearances over the last two Septembers and it is time for the Orioles to see what they have with him. With Walker, the Orioles have an above average power hitter, but his strikeout rate has increased at the higher levels, approaching a 25% K% in Triple-A the last two seasons. Walker appears to have fallen behind Trey Mancini in the organization's prospect rankings. Mancini should make a push to Triple-A in 2016, so it may be now or never for Walker. The Orioles will need to sign Chris Davis or replace him. Walker is the top internal candidate and he could in theory compete for the starting job in spring training, but there is a strong possibility the club signs or trades for a first baseman.

The 23-year-old first baseman got his first taste of the big leagues in 2014, thanks in large part to Chris Davis getting suspended for the final two weeks of the season after testing positive for amphetamines. He started the season at Double-A Bowie, and certainly deserved a promotion after slashing .301/.367/.516 with 20 home runs in 411 plate appearances, but under normal circumstances he may not have gotten another promotion so soon after slashing .259/.335/.428 in just 44 games at Triple-A. With Davis eligible to open the season at first base, and Steve Pearce presumably assured of a spot on the Opening Day roster, Walker will likely spend most of 2015 at Triple-A attempting to build off his power outburst in 2014. There are very few first-base prospects that are as close to contributing as Walker, but if he were to be given a full-time role due to a trade or an injury to Davis or Pearce, he would profile as a second division player, at best.

Walker earned passing grades in his first full pro season, advancing from Low-A to Double-A by the end of the season. Power is Walker's most valuable tool and he showed off with 11 home runs at the lower two levels. The Orioles should be happy with his .300 average on the season, though his production dropped as he advanced. Walker should begin 2014 at Double-A, but he is probably more than a year away from being able to help the Orioles after being selected by the organization as a fourth-round pick in 2012.