Astros to sign Christian Walker, ending Alex Bregman era

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman breaks down 1B Christian Walker signing with the Astros and how that impacts Alex Bregman and the Astros as a wholeYahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman breaks down Houston’s signing of the 3-time Gold Glove winner and why it likely means the end of Alex Bregman’s time with the club.

Video Transcript

The Houston Astros have reportedly agreed to a 3 year, $60 million deal with free agent first baseman Christian Walker.

The Astros have been very busy in December.

They traded Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for third baseman Eso Parade, a top prospect in.

Smith and a right-hander in Hayden Westiewski.

Then they had a deal lined up to acquire Nolan Arinato from St. Louis, but the third baseman decided to use his no trade clause and block the trade to Houston.

So that left Houston with some questions.

Where would they go in the infield?

Would they try and re-sign Alex Bregman?

And instead, they turned to Walker and they bring him in on a 3-year deal.

So that would seem to close the door on a return to Houston for Bregman.

For Houston, the infield looks very different.

The lineup looks very different with Walker and Paradas now slated to play third base.

Walker is a great player.

This is a guy who's won 3.

Consecutive Gold Gloves at first.

He's been a consistent middle of the lineup presence for Arizona over the last half decade and now he will be in the middle of a very, very different looking Astros lineup.

Now, is Houston better at this stage than they were a year ago?

It's tough to say.

The outfield still remains very uncertain and their willingness to address the outfield and bring in even more offensive reinforcements could determine whether this lineup looks meaningfully better than last year or just different.