Christian Walker Making a Strong Early Case for NL Rookie of the Year

When the Arizona Diamondbacks traded first baseman and franchise icon, Paul Goldschmidt this past offseason, many fans and analysts alike expected the Diamondbacks to take a step backwards and potentially re-enter the rebuild phase, something that had been on the minds of Arizona's front office for a few years. However, that certainly has not been the case so far this year as the Arizona Diamondbacks have been one of the better teams in the National League and have been viewed as a surprise by many.

Currently, the Diamondbacks head into play today sitting in second place in the National League West, a 1/2 game back of the division rival Los Angeles Dodgers, with a 15-11 record. Over their last 10 games, the Diamondbacks have an 8-2 record and are looking to improve upon their current 4-game win streak later on tonight against the Chicago Cubs.

While there have been several different components behind the Diamondbacks success thus far including good performances by their starting pitchers, a lineup that has really come through in key situations, and a bullpen that has held up their end of the bargain, there's one individual within the Diamomdbacks lineup that is really capturing baseball by surprise. That individual is 28-year old, Christian Walker, who you could consider a late bloomer and someone who many thought would never pan out at the big league level.

Walker, who made his official MLB debut way back on September 17th, 2014, still holds onto the qualifications necessary to be a rookie this season. When he made his MLB debut in 2014 with the Baltimore Orioles, Walker appeared in 6 games followed by 7 games during the following season. Following the 2015 season, Walker floated between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds, being claimed on waivers both times, before being claimed off waivers by the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 28th, 2017.

While many wondered if Christian Walker would ultimately live up to his full potential and be the player that many scouts projected him to be, Walker has finally shown that he has turned a corner and is beginning to live up to that potential. The biggest reason behind the success isn't necessarily because he is surrounded by other hitters that can mash the baseball, but rather due to the opportunity to get regular everyday at bats and have a regular spot on the team.

As illustrated above, Walker floated between organizations and spent a majority of his time with those organizations down in the minor leagues. As a player, when you are constantly floating around from team-to-team and never have that regular stability, it can become a huge challenge and prevent someone from developing into their full form. That's exactly what happened with Christian Walker and a reason why his waiver pickup might be one of the best in recent MLB transaction history.

So far this season, Walker is hitting: .341/.398/.694 with 29 hits, 9 doubles, 7 home runs, 15 RBI, 8 walks, and 27 strikeouts over the span of 93 plate appearances. In that time, Walker has a 174 OPS+ along with an Isolated Power value of (.353) and a BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play) value of (.431). If you need even more numerical information on Walker, he currently holds an overall offensive rating of (10.6) and has a walk-to-strikeout ratio of (0.30).

While it is still early, the Arizona Diamondbacks will play their 27th game of the regular season later tonight, it is a promising sign and something that deserves plenty of recognition amid the NL Rookie of the Year conversation. Heading into the season, many people expected NL Rookies such as: Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres, Peter Alonso of the New York Mets, and Victor Robles of the Washington Nationals, to dominate the conversation. Although each of those players have been successful to this point, no one likely expected Christian Walker to break out of the gate like he has.

Another interesting comparison to study about Christian Walker relates to his velocity on certain pitches and how much that velocity has increased between last season and this year. Here is a chart, courtesy of data from FanGraphs, for illustration:

As you can see, the velocity on all three of those pitches (changeup, slider, and cutter) have increased for Christian Walker which directly correlates to his impressive Isolated Power value, mentioned above. The power is beginning to take shape thanks to regular playing time and should continue to remain consistent throughout the rest of the season. It's a good sign and a credit to Arizona Diamondbacks hitting coach, Darnell Coles, that the team has been able to tap into that offensive power for Walker.

Furthermore, here is a heat map, courtesy of ESPN, which helps to illustrate the areas within the strike zone, as well as outside of the zone, where Christian Walker excels the most based on batting average.

From the chart, it can be gathered that Walker does well on the outer right side of the zone as well as directly down the middle. The closer to Walker an opposing team's pitcher gets, the higher likelihood that pitcher has of striking Walker out. Over the remainder of this season, it will be interesting to see how these current trends change and if Walker starts getting more pitches inside closer to his body rather than further out in the middle or along the outer right side of the plate/zone.

With that being said, Walker's main selling point is his offense, but he has also started to develop into being a reputable defender at first base as well. Thus far, Walker has committed 0 errors and has made 29 assists over 179 innings of work. Again, it's a small sample size, but it could be a sign that he might hold up well defensively over the remainder of the season. Even Arizona Diamondbacks skipper, Torey Lovullo, has made recent comments about Walker's improving defense. Hopefully with more consistent playing time, Walker can continue to develop those elite defensive skills and provide value to the Arizona Diamondbacks infield.

Although it's still early in the 2019 regular season and there are plenty of games left to be played, the Arizona Diamondbacks have made some serious noise early on and part of that is due to offensive players such as first baseman, Christian Walker. The NL Rookie of the Year conversation might be based around other more well-known rookies around the league, but Christian Walker deserves legitimate consideration and could be an early sleeper in the derby.