Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker recently spent four days in rehab at Reno where he played in 2017 and 2018. (Photo: Steve Ranson/LVN, file)
Coming off a shortened season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker was looking forward to normalcy returning to Major League Baseball.
A 160-game season was reduced to 60, and the teams played before an empty stadium. Players could tip their hats only to cutout cardboard fans.
“I’m definitely craving the long season again — the length of everything evens out by the end of the year,” he said on his last day of a rehab assignment at Greater Nevada Field.
After the COVID season, Walker still batted a respectable .271 in 57 games, but he swatted only seven homeruns and drove in 34 runs.
The 30-year-old Walker celebrated his late March birthday this year by being named the Diamondbacks’ MVP for spring training after finishing in the top-10 in home runs, runs batted in, on-base plus slugging (OPS) and slugging percentage. Walker, who hasn’t spent too much time on the injured list during his career, found himself sidelined twice for 10-day stretches with a strained right oblique, an external abdominal muscle. Walker returned to Reno in late May for four games on an rehabilitation assignment to swing the bat more and receive additional playing time.
Walker batted .235 by going 4 for 17 with a walk and a pair of home runs, one a booming three-run shot, during rehab.
Recovery, though, has been slow since he returned to Phoenix from Reno on May 29. He has struggled at the plate during the last seven games with five hits including a home run against Oakland. His batting average hovers near .200. Walker, though, hasn’t been the only Diamondback player mired in a slump. The entire team has stumbled during a seven game losing streak, and on Thursday, Arizona fired its two hitting coaches.
Called up as one of the new co-hitting coaches is Reno’s Rick Short, who worked with Walker when he spent a few days last month at Greater Nevada Field. The other hitting coach is Drew Hedman, the Diamondbacks’ run production coordinator.
“Between a slow start battling an injury and lack of consistency at batting, it’s good to feel some good things happening,” Walker pointed out. “The results were great. I had some good contact.”
Walker said he had some small victories at Greater Nevada Field, home for two years in 2017 and 2018. The former University of South Carolina player said he saw good pitches and made good decisions, which, to him, were small victories before returning to the Diamondbacks.
“I had more trust in my body, less aware of it (the strained oblique muscle) and getting back to just playing and feeling myself. The reps were good, and I was making the right adjustments.”
The calling out of Walker’s name in Reno was loud and crisp like the old days, ringing from the right-field seats to the family section deep along the left-field line. During a day off between two games in Sacramento and two in Reno against Tacoma, Walker decided to drive to Lake Tahoe for the day. He said his wife is not fond of traveling, but he’s certain she’ll love Lake Tahoe if she visited it.
While many players dread being sent down to the Triple-A team for rehab, Walker saw it as an opportunity to return to the city that supported him before he found a home with the Diamondbacks. In 2017, Walker batted .309 with 32 homeruns and 114 RBIs for the Aces and was selected as the Pacific Coast League Player of the Year. During the following year, Walker played 84 games in Reno and 37 for the Diamondbacks.
“My experience in Reno has been a lot of fun,” Walker said after batting practice. “I had a lot of success on the field. It’s good to be back in the clubhouse.”
Walker paused.
“It’s kind of crazy, but it takes me back to that confident place like the last time I played here,” he assessed. “I was a good hitter, had a little more trust, a little more comfort here in the box.”
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