Houston Astros Hoping Batting Order Change for Christian Walker Sparks Turnaround

The Houston Astros handed Christian Walker a three-year, $60 million contract this past winter.

There were concerns that giving this amount of money to an aging first baseman wouldn't pan out, something the organization is all too familiar with based on the bust that Jose Abreu turned out to be.

Still, the thinking was Walker would at least provide a higher floor based on his Gold Glove-winning defense, a major shortcoming of Abreu's game and the others who were forced to replace the slugger when he was cut.

However, what has transpired thus far has given everyone a feeling of deja vu.

Walker is in the midst of putting together the worst season of his career since becoming a full-time big leaguer, not a great sign for the Astros when considering he's 34 years old and this is the first season of his new contract.

Houston knows they have to find a way to get him going, and that resulted in manager Joe Espada moving the star slugger out of the clean up spot on Saturday.

This was the first time he hadn't hit fourth in the lineup for the Astros, and during his breakout stretch the past three years with the Arizona Diamondbacks, there was only one time he wasn't the clean-up hitter when starting a game.

The good news is that change seemed to work on Saturday.

After entering the contest with a .159/.266/.232 slash line and just one home run and two RBI, Walker hit an important two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning that tied the game up at two, setting the table for Houston's other notable offseason acquisition, Isaac Paredes, to drive in what was ultimately the game-winning run.

"His biggest swing so far as an Astro, for sure. Happy for him. He's grinding. We all are, but he's grinding," Espada said about Walker's homer, per Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle.

How long Walker remains out of the fourth spot will be seen.

Espada originally posed the move as them wanting to "change some things up there in the middle," but it was not hard to understand that this meant inserting a hotter hitter into one of the most important roles in the lineup.

Perhaps not feeling like he has to deliver in that spot -- especially after inking his monster deal and seeing how poor the offense has been overall -- will help him find his swing again.

That's what the Astros are banking on.