By Ken Rosenthal, Chandler Rome and Noah Furtado

Christian Walker, the incumbent first baseman who won the National League Gold Glove Award three times, is in serious talks with the Houston Astros about a contract with the organization.

A league source notes that the two teams are “going there.” There’s no deal in place yet, but signing Walker would have huge implications for the Astros and would almost certainly spell the end of free agent third baseman Alex Bregman’s run with the team. Walker would play first and Isaac Paredes would play third. The move would also eliminate the possibility of the Astros acquiring third baseman Nolan Arenado, who blocked a trade to Houston this week.

Walker, 33, is a late bloomer and has developed into one of the league’s most versatile first basemen. He is the No. 15 free agent prospect with 32 home runs per 150 games and an OPS over .800 over the last three seasons The athleteThe 2024-25 Top 40 Big Board features above-average production at the plate and elite skill in the field. Walker’s 14 outs above average topped all Dutch first basemen a season ago.

Walker would come off the board ahead of fellow free agent Pete Alonso. At 30, Alonso was projected The athleteTim Britton is heading into free agency on a five-year, $130 million contract. Britton predicted Walker to be two years old and $44 million.

Walker earned $2.6 million in 2022, $6.5 million in 2023 and $10.9 million in 2024.

If that happens, Walker should provide stability at a position that struggled for Houston last season. According to FanGraphs, the Astros averaged minus-1.4 wins against their first basemen’s replacements in the regular season. Only the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds received less value. The team released José Abreu in June amid his endless decline, relying on a platoon from Jon Singleton against right-handed pitching and one of its catchers against left-handed pitching in his absence.

Most players become eligible free agents for the first time at age 20. Walker, who wasn’t an everyday player until he turned 28 and will be 34 at the start of next season, rejected his $21.05 million qualifying offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks and sought a multi-year contract.

Walker appeared in just a few games over two seasons for the Baltimore Orioles, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB Draft before delisting him in 2017. For a time, he bounced around from team to team on waivers 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 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 eliminated them from the postseason the stage brought a day of rest.

“That’s all I know from my big league experience, and it’s going to be emotional.”

Walker was a key figure in the Diamondbacks’ improbable run to their second World Series appearance in 2023, as they defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 in the NL Wild Card Series, defeated the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and beat the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies in seven games.

(Top photo by Christian Walker: Norm Hall/Getty Images)