Diamondbacks’ Christian Walker eyes free agency: 'We have the ball in our court'

Seven years ago, Christian Walker was bouncing from team to team on waivers during spring training. His big league future appeared tenuous, uncertain, and he considered the idea of playing overseas. He decided to stick it out.

His career trajectory came to mind as the Diamondbacks’ first baseman pondered his situation at the outset of spring training. He is entering his final season before free agency. He has turned himself into one of the better first basemen in baseball. He has positioned himself take full advantage — and says he is intrigued by the idea of hitting free agency.

“It’s something that a lot of guys fight for and have a hard time getting there,” Walker said. “To feel like I’m close is cool, looking back on where I was not that long ago.”

Walker, who will make $10.9 million this season in his final year of arbitration, said he “loves” playing in Arizona and would be open to staying. Asked if there had been any discussion of a long-term deal, he said, “No, not too much,” adding that he trusts his agency and leaves that sort of thing to them.

Walker’s production the past two years has been impressive. Not only does he have a combined 69 homers and 197 RBIs, posting an OPS that is 24 percent better than league average, he also has won a pair of Gold Gloves for his work at first base. In 2022 and 2023, he accumulated a total of 7.6 wins above replacement (WAR) per FanGraphs, the fourth-best mark among major league first basemen.

While the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman (six years, $162 million) secured by far the largest guarantee for a first baseman in recent years, other well-regarded players at the position have received deals in the range of $15 million-$20 million per season. Even Rhys Hoskins, coming off a lost year due to a knee injury, signed for two years and $34 million.

At this point, Walker’s age — he will hit the market ahead of his age-34 season — figures to be his only detriment.

Walker said he has thought a bit about how he might fare as a free agent, mostly in the context of where he was when he first joined the Diamondbacks via a waiver claim in the spring of 2017. As he went through that season in Triple-A Reno, he was approached by multiple clubs from Japan to gauge his interest in playing in their top league. He said he and his wife, Amanda, considered it.

“Mentally, we weren’t sure where or how much longer (my career) was going to go,” Walker said. “To look back, it’s a sense of accomplishment. Like, wow, we’ve created this leverage; it’s a thing now. We have the ball in our court. It hasn’t always felt that way. Very much a sense of pride. I think it’s motivating to keep wanting to head in that direction.”

It is unclear whether the Diamondbacks plan to approach Walker about an extension this spring; General Manager Mike Hazen’s policy is not to comment on such things.

If Walker were to reach free agency, perhaps him signing elsewhere is not a fait accompli. Just this past offseason, outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit the market and signed back with the club, a rare instance of the Diamondbacks retaining a significant free agent after he reaches the open market. Hazen has said in the past he hoped to do more of those kinds of deals going forward.

Walker was asked how he plans to try to handle the pressure of entering a walk year, a situation that can weigh on players given the amount of money hanging in the balance. He said he hadn’t decided whether he might seek out advice from older peers, but he did say he thinks he is well-equipped to handle the challenge given the success he has enjoyed and the work he has put in.

“I think early in my career there was a subconscious feeling of maybe not feeling truly prepared and that was the insecurity or the lack of confidence,” he said. “And then when you fail it weighs a little heavier because you think maybe that failure is more accurate than the success.

“I’m very confident in myself and the product I put out on the field. It’s something I worked hard at for so long, and I feel like I can buy into that and I can trust myself in some of these situations.”

He compared it to the pressure of having to perform in order to get paid through arbitration and figures he will be best served not stressing over the day-to-day.

Walker kept coming back to one point, saying his focus this year is going to be on helping the Diamondbacks do again what they did last year. He said he feels a deep connection to the organization given what has been accomplished.

“I think that’s the sense of pride I feel when I think about being part of the core group of this team and not that long ago getting to the World Series seemed like an impossible task,” he said. “And then all of a sudden we did it. It didn’t feel like it was on a stroke of luck or anything like that; we felt like we earned it and that’s who we are. I do feel an extreme sense of pride when I look at the success of the organization over the last year or so and count myself a part of that, for sure.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ‘We have the ball in our court’: Dbacks’ Christian Walker eyes free agency