Astros' gamble on Christian Walker is finally starting to pay off

Even winning yet another AL West title last season wasn't enough to hide the reality that the Houston Astros needed to make some moves to improve the roster, including first base. Hence the decision to take a gamble on Christian Walker, who was signed to a three-year, $60 million deal and coming off his third consecutive Gold Glove Award-winning season with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In this respect, Walker's defense has been just fine. Tt's a different story altogether, however, with his offense, likely not helped by injury concerns which limited his availability during spring training. The situation reached a low point ahead of the series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, with Astros manager Joe Espada making the decision to sit him for the first time this season.

This was an understandable move, given that Walker had a. 156/.253/.260 slash line, .513 OPS and -0.2 WAR and was looking nothing like the player who just two seasons earlier hit a career-high 103 RBI.

Astros are beginning to see the real version Christian Walker

Speaking to The Athletic's Chandler Rome (subscription required) about his early-season struggles, he made no excuses as he said: "At the end of the day, I have to be my own coach. You have to be accountable. It’s not someone else’s job to figure out your swing for you. (Astros hitting coaches) give me everything I need, numbers-wise, hitting plan-wise, drill work in the cage. Anything I feel right now is 100 percent on me."

Regardless of what the issue was, the day off seemed to do Walker a world of good as he came back the very next game to record a season-high three hits, followed by another two in the series finale versus the Blue Jays. The latest examples of his turnaround came this week in the series against the AL-leading Detroit Tigers, with Walker producing some key hits to help the Astros take two of the three games.

Walker's lethal power was on full display during Tuesday's 6-4 win against the Tigers, with him recording the two hardest-hit balls of the game including a sixth-inning double which had a 109.1 mph exit velocity. Speaking to MLB.com's Brian McTaggart postgame, he said: "Those are the type of swings that build some trust. You talk about stacking wins, getting the confidence back, it’s those types of swings. It’s feeling like you picked a good one, maybe you earned a good one."

To be clear there's still plenty for Walker to do to prove that he's truly back, just based on his .196/.277/.355 slash line and .632 OPS at the time of writing being projected as his worst since becoming a regular starter in 2019. However, Walker still deserves plenty of credit for the work he's put in to improve after his miserable start, with him looking more like the player who the Astros forked out so much money for.

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