{"id":91168,"date":"2024-12-04T15:33:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T20:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=91168"},"modified":"2024-12-04T15:33:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T20:33:19","slug":"mariners-in-the-mix-for-christian-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/04\/mariners-in-the-mix-for-christian-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleeper Team Emerges as Top Suitor for Slugger&#8217;s Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Mariners are expected to be active players in the free-agent market this offseason. One position they may look to upgrade is first base. According to MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi, the Mariners are a team to watch in the pursuit of free-agent first baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkech02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Walker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think for [Walker] on a three- or maybe even a four-year deal, with the defensive value that he brings and the power, I think Walker and the Mariners, that is one of the pairings that I&#8217;m watching very carefully potentially in the days ahead,&#8221; Morosi said during Wednesday&#8217;s edition of Hot Stove.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;[Christian] Walker and the Mariners &#8211; that is one of the pairings that I am watching very carefully here potentially in the days ahead [of the Winter Meetings].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonmorosi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@jonmorosi<\/a> on <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLBNHotStove?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLBNHotStove<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WSJ7zwQmQR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/WSJ7zwQmQR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBNetwork\/status\/1864372094420832706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Walker, 33, is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/20\/first-baseman-looking-improve\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">coming off a season<\/a> in which he slugged 26 home runs in 130 games and recorded an .800-plus OPS for the third consecutive season. He also won his third consecutive Gold Glove Award, demonstrating his exceptional defensive skills.<\/p>\n<h2>Mariners Considered a Team to Watch for Christian Walker<\/h2>\n<p>While Walker may not command the same level contract as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alonspe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete Alonso<\/a>, the other <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/14\/pete-alonso-landing-spots-rumors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">top first baseman<\/a> on the market. Alonso will <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/04\/pete-alonso-free-agent-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">generate significant interest<\/a> from teams looking for help at the position. Alonso has more home runs than Walker over the past three seasons (120 to 95). Although Walker&#8217;s defensive prowess sets him apart. According to outs above average, Walker has been vastly superior on defense over the same span, with a rating of 36 compared to Alonso&#8217;s minus-16.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Yankees are one team that has already been linked to Walker. However, Morosi&#8217;s comments suggest the Mariners could be a dark horse candidate to sign him. The Yankees in particular are looking to replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rizzoan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Rizzo<\/a>, who became a free agent at thend of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The Mariners got good production out of their first basemen this season. They posted a 115 wRC+ that tied for eighth-best in the majors. However, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/turneju01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Turner<\/a> hitting free agency and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/raleylu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Raley<\/a> being an outfielder by trade, the team may look to add a more established first baseman like Walker to their lineup.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Walker batted .251\/.335\/.468 with 84 RBI over 130 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, despite missing the entire month of August with a left oblique strain. He also led National League first baseman with 13 outs above average. MLB Trade Rumors has predicted that Walker will land a three-year, $60 million deal in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Steven Bisig-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Mariners are expected to be active players in the free-agent market this offseason. One position they may look to upgrade is first base. According to MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi, the Mariners are a team to watch in the pursuit of free-agent first baseman Christian Walker. &#8220;I think for [Walker] on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":91183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071],"tags":[67,2517,435,1856],"class_list":["post-91168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","tag-anthony-rizzo","tag-christian-walker","tag-justin-turner","tag-luke-raley"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91184,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91168\/revisions\/91184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}