The summer months might be slower without much college football or basketball happening. But for teams across Major League Baseball, summertime is where the season is just getting hot. Several teams are putting themselves in a position for playoff pushes in June, July and August.
One player who has been hot all season long on the diamond is Houston Astros first baseman and former South Carolina Gamecock Christian Walker. The 12-year MLB veteran is having himself a heck of a season at the plate. He's been so good through the first couple months of the season that he leads the entire American League in RBI.
Walker sits atop the division with 40 RBI, tied with Jonathan Aranda of the Tampa Bay Rays. Although the Astros are 24-31 on the season, Houston is still in 4th place in the AL East, and are very much still in the hunt for the postseason. Walker is on-pace for a career-high season already. One of his best seasons was in 2023 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he had 103 RBI with a .333 on-base percentage. He added another 36 home runs with Arizona in 2022. He's also been hitting a lot of home runs as of late:
Christian Walker stays HOT!
— MLB (@MLB) May 26, 2026
His 4th home run in the last 3 days 😤 pic.twitter.com/rnOqphu8gy
Walker has been in the league since 2014, starting his career with the Baltimore Orioles who drafted him in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB Draft. He spent just two seasons with the Orioles before going to the Diamondbacks from 2017-2024. He signed a three-year, $60 million deal with the Astros before the 2025 season.
“I put a lot of work this spring training on my bat path staying higher and more direct … trying to stay higher with my hands and trying to stay more direct,” Walker said of how he tweaked his swing via The Athletic in late March . “I know my barrel is going to drop, it’s going to come down. Having that better loft and move to be on the other side of the spectrum, it feels like I’m being very direct. And, if you watch the video, it’s actually on-plane.”
He spent 2010-2012 with the South Carolina Gamecocks, where he helped lead the program to back-to-back CWS titles in 2010 and 2011. They finished as runners up at the CWS in 2012.
He finished his Gamecock career with 137 runs batted in, including another 30 home runs.
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