The astronaut signed Jose Abreu In the 2022-23 offseason, a three-year, 58.5mm contract appears to block the first base position, one of the few weak links in the club’s World Championship winning roster. Abreu entered his 36-year-old season and his strength count dropped sharply in 2022, but the former AL MVP still performed well in the overall year in the set to .304/.378/.446, proving that this is his last year with White Sox. Abreu’s “Professional Batsman” record of an impressive 137 WRC+, showing that he will continue to play in the late 1930s, making his deal a wise investment in Houston on paper.
In fact, of course, things were soon heading south to Abreu in his new home. After hitting just .237/.296/.383 in 2023 in 594 PA, Abreu hit so badly in the first 120 PA of the 2024 season (.124/.167/.195), the Astros chose the veteran from last June and simply released the rest of his contract. Currently, the rest of the 2025 season still owes Abreu $11.9 mm.
Even if there are still such a huge Abreu deal on the 2025 books, it is certainly necessary for Astros to settle first base in a major way over the past winter. Technically, it should be pointed out that Christian Walker It is Houston’s backup plan for the first base location. After the acquisition of ISSAC PAREDES Kyle Tucker Trade, Astronauts appear to land on another deal with Cardinal Nolan ArenadoThis would have installed Arenado in third base, and Paredes is Houston’s new first baseman. Instead, Arenado used his untrade protection to refuse to move to Houston, and later reported that Arenado did not completely close the door to Astronauts as a landing site, but given that Houston had just traded a royal superstar in Tucker, he just wanted to take more time to assess the situation.
Instead of waiting for Arenado, Astros radiated in the free agent market by signing Walker as a three-year, 60mm contract. This made the new third baseman more actionable, and this equation has at least been solved, as Paredes made a good start in his first year in his Astros uniform.
To fill first base, Walker has won twice-win Bible award-winning guard Walker, the Astros seem to have solidified everything well. Walker also had 141 home runs over 3171 PA Rattlers, and from 2019-24, Walker also hit .253/.332/.464, with his 2021 injury campaign ahead of his 2021 injury, the Rattlers had a higher-than-average offense. When he entered the 34-year-old season, he showed no signs of slowing down, and in the eyes of many observers, Walker beat the first base Pete Alonsohe was four years younger and had to wait longer to find a new contract.
The 36-29 Astronauts ranked first in Al West and seemed to be lined up again in October. There are also only 65 games in the 2025 season, so we are still dealing with a relatively small sample size when discussing underperforming players. However, even though Walker’s slow start didn’t really restore the Astronaut to a large extent, his performance suddenly fell into a bad state in Houston’s first two or more months.
With 260 sets, Walker hit .207/.269/.350 with eight home runs, while only 16 qualified players had WRC+ below Walker’s 76 figures. His 6.2% walk rate and 27.7% strikeout rate are well below the league average, and Walker’s worst BB% and K% are both at high speeds in all his major league seasons. Walker’s barrel and fierce ball rate is slightly lower than his 2024 number, but is still solid, but his isolated power metric has dropped from .217 in 2024 to .143 in 2025.
A .258 BABIP is part of the problem, so Walker’s numbers are surely likely to normalize the number of his hard contacts, which is surely likely to start converting his hard contacts into hits. However, Walker chased more courts than usual, and his 47.9% pull rate is much higher than his 42% pull rate entering the 2025 season. One explanation may be that the right-hand hit Walker is focused on taking advantage of Daikin Park’s short porch to the left, but his split falls on that theory. Walker hit .250/.321/.431 in his new home court, only .165/.217/.273 on the road.
Another set of splits may provide another tip, as Walker’s 227 PA to the right-handed pitch is more than 227 PA, and the opss on the left-handed pitch on the 33 PA is .320. Walker’s career split against the right and left-handed is almost entirely or even completely, but his lack of production for the South Claw (when he should have an advantage) may not stand out as much as Walker rarely faces left-handed pitching.
This may be a bit like statistical fluorine, but the Astros’ overall lineup is absurdly tilted in favor of the right bat. and Yordan Alvarez and Taylor Trammell On the injured list, Jacob Melton and two backup receivers (Cesar Salazar and switch commands Victor Caratini) offers the only left-handed balance in Houston’s current position player combination. Opposition teams have little reason to deploy left-handed pitchers on the field of right-handed batsman’s Astros, and Walker may have some trouble getting used to this new reality.
If Walker’s hitting number is disappointing, his gloves may be more shocking than anything else. Walker has produced -4 Defensive Runs Saved and +1 Outs Above Average over 543 1/3 innings at the Astros’ first base spot this year, down from a +7 DRS and +13 OAA in 2024. Adding to this puzzling situation is the fact that Walker is now suddenly a relative weak link on one of baseball’s better defensive teams — Houston ranks second in baseball in OAA (18), and Fangraphs’ The overall defendsive ranking system ranks Astros ninth.
Walker’s overall result was -0.3 FWAR in the first 63 games against Astros. Needless to say, this isn’t Houston’s expectation for its biggest free agent signing, especially since Ink Walker costs not only 60mm, but also two compensatory draft picks, as Houston exceeds the 2024 luxury tax threshold.
Perhaps, if Abreu’s contract hasn’t sat on the Astros’ books, Walker’s performance could be written off as a downturn or move to the adjustment period of AL West eight years later. But Houston fans yelled the alarm bell on a first baseman in a missed free agent, especially in Jose AltuveTheir own struggles and the uncertain damage situation of Alvarez throw some shadows in the Astros’ good start. Of course, Walker has plenty of time to turn things around and provides some more concrete evidence that Houston’s first fundamental problem has been properly addressed.
