Christian Walker Wins National League Gold Glove at First Base

Walker's hard work resulted in a great defensive season and a Gold Glove Award.

© Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports

Christian Walker's hard work and determination on defense has paid off, as he'll be walking away with his first career National League Gold Glove Award at first base for the 2022 season. Along with the Matt Olson and Paul Goldschmidt,  Walker was a finalist for the award. (See link for previous story)

In 2022 Walker enjoyed a career year, both offensively and defensively. That work resulted in both Sports Info Solution's Defensive Runs Saved and Baseball Savant's Statcast rating him as +17 DRS and +14 Outs Above Average. In both metrics, he was more than 10 runs/outs better than the next player on each leaderboard, which made him the favorite to win a Gold Glove.

The award is the fourth that a D-backs first baseman has won in the past 10 years, with Goldschmidt winning the other three in 2013, 2015, and 2017. He also won the Fielding Bible Award at the position, being the only first baseman in baseball to convert more than 50% of his opportunities to his right. His ability to close the hole on the right side of the infield was a big reason why he won the award.