Christian Walker's latest claim contrasts with Yankees Winter Meetings rumors

According to a flurry of sources, ranging from reliable to random, the New York Yankees were close to signing first baseman Christian Walker at the Winter Meetings. Multiple parties claimed the two sides were zeroing in on a deal overnight, and YES Network insider Jack Curry created a bit of additional smoke.

Unfortunately, there was never fire on a three-year deal. Whether the Yankees balked at losing additional draft pick compensation in the wake of the Max Fried deal, or never intended to entertain the notion at all, will never be known. It seems unlikely that New York's brass outright forgot about the attached picks, then blacked out in rage and called off the deal at the last minute when they realized what they'd done. Therefore, either the two sides never saw eye to eye and the rumors were greatly exaggerated, or something else got in the way.

Regardless, now that Walker is an Astro on a similar three-year pact, and Paul Goldschmidt is a Yankee, one thing is clear: if a team really wanted Walker, in theory, they could've gotten things done quite easily.

Walker's introductory press conference with the Astros arrived on Monday evening, and he made sure to note that he'd been eyeing Houston all along. Likewise, the Astros moved very quickly on this as a motivated buyer.

More motivated than the Yankees, at least.

Astros moved quickly on Christian Walker, were more motivated than Yankees

The Astros have certainly built the kind of infrastructure where, if you're a mid-tier free agent seeking three or four years, they can provide you the money you need and a very clear shot at a World Series title. They've got the same draft pick fears as the Yankees (and a worse farm system to boot). They did not care. They're the kings of finding a middle ground, and they found another one.

The Yankees? They clearly never viewed Walker (and Pete Alonso, his fellow multi-year first basemen) as reasonable targets. Instead, they seemed fated to choose between Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana, Josh Naylor, and Nathaniel Lowe, maintaining flexibility for 2026 and beyond. They appear to have made the right call.

Retroactively, we hope you didn't buy the hype on Walker. Monday's press conference made it clearer than ever that, if the Yankees had been in hot pursuit (and Walker had reciprocated with interest), this would've been done two weeks ago.