Astros trade 1B Christian Walker + cash to Padres for RHP Bradgley Rodriguez

This would be an alternate trade option to Paredes for Houston, with him then playing first base. Walker didn't have a good first season in Houston, his OPS+ slipping from 120 to 97, although he hit 27 home runs and Statcast still viewed him as a plus defender at first base. (Other metrics weren't as generous, but Walker won three straight Gold Gloves from 2022 to 2024, so I would be more inclined to go with the Statcast evaluation.)

After finishing 28th in home runs in 2025, the Padres need more power, and with Walker at first, they can slide Jake Cronenworth on a full-time basis over to second base. The current alignment doesn't project well, with the Padres ranking 28th in FanGraphs' projected WAR at first base (a mix of Gavin Sheets and Cronenworth) and 20th at second base (a combo of Cronenworth and Sung-Mun Song). Rodriguez is a big-league ready reliever who can help a Houston bullpen that is a little thin from the right side beyond Bryan Abreu, and while the Astros would have to pay down some of the $40 million owed to Walker the next two seasons, trading him would still clear some payroll to make another move.

I would love this guy purely for games at Dodger Stadium. I imagine it would take more than my guy Bradgley to get him but what do I know.

11 comments

  1. Gonna be 35 and coming off a season where he put up only 0.2 bWAR. Ya that’s a no from me

    Edit: plus he’s gonna be owed $40M over the next 2 seasons. Ya double no.

  2. Idk, I think you just gotta trust Sheets can hit 20 HR’s and have decent defense at first base. If he even posts 0.5 – 1 WAR at first base thats a win for us. Like the other comment said, Walker was well below replacement value and is aging.

  5. When will people see Padres are holding onto Jacob for the Skubal trade next year? /s AND I personally think Bradgley plays a huge role this year. 

  6. I think Sheets will be fine as a full time 1b, he was primarily at 1b in college at Wake Forest and he only moved to the outfield with the White Sox because he was blocked by Jose Abreu.

  7. I’d roll with Sheets for the $. If we’re going to take on money I’d rather see it go to a SP.

  8. Is it a Arrenado type trade where we pay him a million or 2 and astros pay the rest? If not, horrible idea. I expect he has a better season this year, but they shouldnt gamble that much money on it.

  9. A 1B like Walker wouldn’t get more than 1/$10 million after the year he’s coming off of while Rodriguez is a serviceable reliever at worst, with the potential to be a high leverage guy.

    They’d have to eat 20-30 million just to trade him for an 18 year old flier, let alone a quality reliever that can contribute today.

  11. I’d be fine with this depending on the amount of money the Astros eat which would be the main obstacle I imagine. But my guess is that the Astros hold on to him this year and hope he returns to his ’22-’24 production and if he doesn’t, salary dumping 1 year/20 mil is easier than dumping 2 years/40 mil.

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