Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks First Baseman

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Additional terms apply. Joining us is the first baseman and big time slugger for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ing Christian Walker. Christian, it's Zach Gelb here in New York City. Appreciate the time as always. How are you? I'm great, Zach. Thanks for having me.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So some way to start off that game last night, just tremendous energy in that stadium when you and also Corbin go deep back to back. Yeah, that was great. You know, it's cool knowing the Rays are coming in, obviously we understand what they're capable of and what that offense can do.

So, you know, to be able to go out and get off to a good start and jump out to an early lead. Yeah, that was cool. It was exciting. I didn't know if your home run was going to clear the fence or if it was going to get brought back when you were rounding third. It looked like you had some words or there was some confusion, maybe with the third baseman. What happened there when I was watching that replay early this morning? Yeah, just confusion.

I've seen a Rosarena do that before where he ends up catching it and then kind of just sits on the ground there. So I was honestly just trying to figure out if it went out or not or if he had it in his glove. I couldn't tell. And then Diaz was just, he was just letting me know that it went out when I was rounding third. I was trying to look past him to look out into the outfield and we made eye contact and he just gave me the home run sign. So once he said it went out, then I was pretty confident. Yeah, I was wondering if you guys were talking smack there for a second.

No, no, no. That was a good interaction. Christian Walker here with us. So Corbin Carroll has been a huge storyline for you guys. We got to see him a little bit last year. He's been unbelievable this season at the age of 22.

Looks like he's going to win the NL Rookie of the Year. Just how do you describe what you're seeing out of him day in and day out? Yeah, it's exciting. It's fun to be a part of.

It's fun to watch. He's the real deal, man. He works hard.

He's got a great head on his shoulders. He's humble. He's smart. He understands. Everything's intentional. He doesn't do things without it, having the proper intent. He's a professional. Everything about him from top to bottom, it's a lot of fun.

I'm glad we're getting the chance to be teammates and obviously hitting behind him is awesome as well. You know how it works in this game? It sometimes takes a while to get going. I know what you just said about him, but is it a little bit surprising where the hype was that he's been able to meet it and also exceed it so far? It's not a matter of him being capable enough.

It's kind of like you said, it's just like on the stage, at the high level. The game is hard. There's no doubt he was going to figure it out eventually.

But to get off to the start, it's just a tribute to how much of a rock solid mindset he has. Christian Walker here with Dust. You guys are going to play your 81st game of the season tonight.

You're 48 and 32. It's been a tremendous season for the Arizona Diamondbacks so far. Going back to spring training, there was talk about you guys could be good and your team is young and up and coming.

You have the right mix of veterans like a player like yourself. What type of team did you think you had before the season started? Yeah, I mean honestly, this was kind of all part of the plan. It's hard to tell exactly how your team is going to respond in the heat of battle and when you need to run late or when you need to put up to zero. Those are the details that you kind of wait for the season to see how we shake out. To me, that's the team's identity. The resiliency we've shown this year has been great to be able to tack on runs late and our pitching staff has been great, keeping us in a lot of games. But just overall, I'd say we're not surprised.

This was all part of the plan. I don't feel like we're doing anything outside of ourselves at the moment. We're just playing clean games and we're a really good team.

You know how this is going to work right at the halfway point. People are going to ask the question, will they continue the success in the second half or are they going to come back down to earth and maybe not be as good as the way they played through the first 80-81 games of the season? Why is the moment not going to be too big for this team down the stretch in the second half of the season?

Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think when you show up every day and you expect a certain product on the field and you set a standard for ourselves, for each other, and then you go out and you execute. It doesn't feel like we're getting lucky. It doesn't feel like things are just going right or the baseball gods are on our side. Yeah, it takes some fortunate things to win a baseball game. Winning a baseball game is an extremely difficult thing. With that being said, feeling like we can win even when we're not at our best just gives confidence in those moments. When you need the big game, when you need the big run, I don't think we're going to be trying too hard. We're going to be prepared and we're going to be confident and we're going to be stoic and it's going to fall into place. Do you feel like you guys have all the pieces to go make a run this year and be playing in the fall classic in October?

Yeah, I don't see why not. Personally, I've never been on a World Series team. I've never really gone too far into the postseason.

Being brutally honest, I don't really know what to expect. It's hard to say, yeah, for sure we have what it takes. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm really confident in this team. I love my teammates. I love the staff we have around us.

It's a lot of fun showing up to the park every day. I think when it's truly funny and you enjoy it, I think those are the things you can hang on to to take you late into the season. Well, Christian Walker, off of that, we know Evan Longoria has seen basically everything that the game has to offer and he's 37 years old, hits the home run up against the Rays. We all know what he did in Tampa many years ago. What does he bring to this team, bringing in just a solid veteran like that, that could still be productive on the field? Yeah, he's great. He's everything. I grew up watching that guy play. I'm like, man, I'm looking forward to get to know this guy. I'm excited to have him as a teammate.

Then you get to know him and everything even gets better. He's a great communicator. He's a professional. He treats everybody the same. Like you said, he's got the experience. When we need a veteran voice or when you've got a question about something, to go to Longo and know that you're going to get a no judgment answer.

It's going to be a really good answer and it's going to be helpful and it's corrective. It's just a great, great guy to have around the clubhouse for sure. And on top of that, he's hitting the crap out of baseball. How crazy is this for you? Is it kind of surreal? Because you're 32 years old right now. You're a veteran leader on this team. We all know the college career that you had as a gamecock at South Carolina, winning the two college baseball world series championships. To now be a seasoned veteran where you're on a team that looks like they go make a run.

Is that kind of crazy how quickly life has hit you? Yeah, for sure, man. It's good. It just adds to the perspective. I feel like it's helpful when I look back and I can appreciate how fortunate I am to be in this situation and to have gotten the opportunity from the Diamondbacks to show what I can do. And it's humbling, man.

It's humbling and it's exciting and motivating and it's all the good things and hopefully I can do it for a while longer. Give me a little vibe here, Christian Walker, on the importance you could tell Marte to this team because he's reached safely now in 20 straight games. It's the second time he's done that this season. He's been unbelievable. Yeah, he's great. Another guy knows his role.

He's not going to try to go above and beyond. He's going to be rock solid for you in the moment when you need it. His defense has been great. His offense obviously is there. He's a guy who doesn't say much.

He kind of lingers in the shadows a little bit and I think it's intentional. He's a private guy. He's a great teammate. He doesn't take the game too seriously.

Very light-hearted but a great teammate as well. Christian Walker, sometimes the team's just ready to go take that next step. Last year you guys were 14 games under 500 when the season was over.

Right now at the halfway mark, you're 16 games over 500. For you, what's the biggest difference when you look at this team having a good understanding of the locker room, the biggest difference from last year to this season? You know, I would say just confidence, overall confidence. I think when you're winning games and you can prove to yourself that you're a good team, the outside noise doesn't matter. You don't care about people's opinions or you don't care about the latest story or the latest drama around the league. It's about you and your brothers in the moment and going to battle every night and having each other's backs.

When I think about this team, it's a close-knit group and we have a lot of fun and it's very light-hearted, but when the bell rings, we'll be there. Last thing I'll ask you, Christian Walker, just because you want to bring up Shoy Otani. Last night hits two home runs and 10 strikeouts.

You're playing right now in a game where Otani's doing things that we've never seen before. As someone that's a student of the game and being able to watch this and following it, and I'm sure guys in the clubhouse are talking about what Otani's doing out there with the Angels. How do you kind of process this greatness that we're seeing right now in the sport?

Yeah, it's amazing. As a hitter, it's so impressive to watch what he's doing. The consistency, the power, the average, the plate discipline. And then on top of that, he's an ace. So it's kind of hard to wrap my head around sometimes just to witness what he's doing. But yeah, he deserves all the credit he's getting and all the attention. He's an amazing, amazing player and looking forward to competing against him here in a few days.

He's Christian Walker, has 16 home runs on the year, 54 RBIs, Arizona Diamondbacks right now sitting on top of the NL West and having a tremendous first half of the season. Christian, appreciate you doing this. Good luck the rest of the way. Thank you.

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