Baltimore Orioles sign first baseman/outfielder Adam Walker
By Ben Palmer
The Baltimore Orioles have signed first baseman/outfielder Adam Walker to a minor league deal. The team claimed Walker off of waivers from the Minnesota Twins back in December, but released him.
The Baltimore Orioles have signed first baseman/outfielder Adam Walker to a minor league deal, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko on Twitter. Back in December, the Orioles claimed Walker off of waivers from the Minnesota Twins, however the Orioles eventually chose to release him.
At 25-years-old, Walker is nearing the end of being a “prospect,” however he has an interesting, and useful, set of skills as a hitter. He’s essentially a high-strikeout hitter with exceptional raw power.
In fact, Walker’s raw power is as good as almost any player in the minors. His scouting grade (which are on a 20-80 scale, for reference) on his raw power was 65, but at the same time, his scouting grade for contact was just 20.
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There’s little doubt about Walker’s power, as he’s easily topped 20 home runs in every level of the minors he’s been at so far, but the biggest issue with Walker is his strikeouts. He had a .305 OBP in 2016 with the Twins Double-A affiliate.
To say that Walker strikes out a bit is an understatement. In his time at AAA with the Twins last year, he struck out 38% of the time. To really understand how insane that strikeout rate is, Chris Davis lead the majors last year with a 32.9% strikeout rate.
Walker also doesn’t offer much in the field, as he’s a below-average defender both in the outfield and at first base, nor does he offer much on the basepaths. Essentially, Walker’s main skill is his raw power, and he’s going to need to make some major strides in his plate discipline for him to get to the majors.
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That being said, if there’s any team in baseball that’s relied on high-power, high-strikeout hitters with some level of success, it’s been the Baltimore Orioles, so it seems that Walker might fit in quite well with the team.