Christian Walker agrees to $60 million, 3-year contract with Astros, AP source says

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Christian Walker agrees to $60 million, 3-year contract with Astros, AP source says

2024-12-21 09:25 Last Updated At：09:30

Gold Glove first baseman Christian Walker and the Houston Astros agreed Friday to a $60 million, three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a successful physical.

Houston acquired infielder Isaac Paredes from the Cubs last weekend in the trade that sent outfielder Kyle Tucker to Chicago, and Walker's agreement likely means the Astros plan to start Paredes at third and won't re-sign third baseman Alex Bregman.

Walker, who turns 34 during the opening week of the season, hit .251 with 26 homers, 84 RBIs, 55 walks and 133 strikeouts this year. That was down from 2023, when he batted .258 with 33 homers and 103 RBIs as the Diamondbacks reached the World Series.

Walker played in 130 games this year, down from 157 in 2023 and 160 in 2022. He was sidelined between July 29 and Sept. 3 by a strained left oblique.

He didn't secure a full-time job in the big leagues until 2019. He's provided consistent power over the past six seasons and has grown into an elite defensive first baseman, winning Gold Gloves in each of the past three seasons.

Walker played college ball at South Carolina and was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 2012. He made his big league debut with the Orioles in 2014 but couldn't stick in the majors and was claimed off waivers by Atlanta, Cincinnati and Arizona in a five-week span.

“He's a phenomenal player,” Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen said. “He's the best defensive first baseman in baseball. He's a self-made player in a lot of ways, and I respect that immensely. What that gave our clubhouse was a lead by example that was pretty elite.”

Walker had a $10.9 million salary last season and turned down Arizona's $21.05 million qualifying offer.

Houston will lose its second- and fifth-highest picks in the 2025 amateur draft.

AP Baseball Writer David Brandt contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

At least 2 dead and 60 hurt after a car drives into a German Christmas market in a suspected attack

2024-12-21 09:24 Last Updated At：09:30

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.

The driver was arrested at the scene shortly after the car barreled into the market at around 7 p.m., when it was teeming with holiday shoppers looking forward to the weekend.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest on a walkway in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.

The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.

The violence shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that's part of a centuries-old German tradition. It also prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg's loss.

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference. He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg, she said.

“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. "Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many."

The violence occurred in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday's attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound across the country.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.

Hours after Friday's tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.

Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to assume that something terrible had happened.”

She called the attack “a dark day” for the city.

“We are shaking,” Steffen said. “Full of sympathy for the relatives, also in the hope that nothing has happened to our relatives, friends and acquaintances.”

The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.

“It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring," the governor said.

Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”

NATO’s secretary-general, the European Commission’s president and Vice President-elect JD Vance also expressed their condolences on X.

“Our prayers go to the people affected by this terrible attack on a Christmas market in Germany. What a ghastly attack so close to Christmas,” Vance wrote.

Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris, who was on the verge of tears, said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.

After a soccer match Friday evening between Bayern Munich and Leipzig, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen asked fans at the club’s stadium to observe a minute of silence.

Moulson reported from Berlin.