Batman & Batman: Kyle Walker and Justin Thomas Jr.

When Kyle Walker and Justin Thomas Jr. sat down together on a hot July day, they couldn't help but laugh. Just two years ago, the two were in opposite corners of the country, waiting to see what their future would hold. Now they were ready to answer questions about their bond. When the most unbreakable duo on the Tourists faced their final question, it proved to be the hardest.

Long before they would spend every day together, Thomas and Walker were two names on a draft board. Thomas was a power-hitting outfielder from Arkansas. Walker, a speedy infielder from Arizona State. They both landed with the Astros in the middle rounds of the 2025 draft. Their first real memory of each other traces back to the post-draft physicals in Houston.

"Just trying to put name to face," Thomas said. "Kyle's one of the first guys that I kind of connected with right away."

Walker felt it too. He pointed to their time in Fayetteville, the 20-game stint that kicked off their pro careers, as the moment it clicked.

"We just found it a little bit more funny than others," Walker said, "and our relationship kind of grew from there."

Their friendship solidified once they became roommates during their first homestand in Fayetteville. Walker's dad drove his car up to town, and from there the two were inseparable, riding together everywhere.

"That was probably when we bonded over music," Walker said. Both are from the South, Walker from Louisiana and Thomas from Georgia. That shared background made the connection easy. Thomas thinks Walker listened to too much Drake, but for the most part, their taste lines up.

At the field, the two are locked in together. Away from it, they give each other space, but never too much. A game of Call of Duty with teammates John Garcia and Nehomar Ochoa Jr. usually pulls them back into the same group chat, trash talk included.

"We get a nice little group going," Walker said, "and we’ll be screaming at each other all the time."

Every group needs its “sweats” (most competitive players), this one is no different. Walker and Garcia wear that title, with an honorable mention for teammate Ethan Frey.

But it’s not just Call of Duty. Both Thomas and Walker have their own cards in MLB The Show now, a perk given to both major and minor leaguers. Walker’s card even leads off his own lineup, but getting there wasn't seamless.

"I got my first card last year in Fayetteville and they made my character white," Walker said. It happened twice before he reached out to the MLBPA to get it corrected. Thomas couldn't help himself when he found out.

"When I first heard that, I couldn't stop laughing," Thomas said. "I thought it was the funniest thing in the world."

Walker's take on it now: "The guy's good this year, so I like it."

They don’t just lead off lineups in video games. Alternating at the top of the Tourists' lineup, Thomas and Walker treat everything, even batting practice, as a competition.

"It's fun to have somebody there to push me every day, knowing that he's going to push me no matter what," Thomas said. "Even though when I'm going through struggles, he's always going to be there to pick me up, give me tough love if I need it."

For Walker, watching Thomas produce only raises his own standard.

"That's even more reason for me to do well," Walker said, "because this is my guy, and we both want to kind of get to the next level."

That competitiveness has shown up in real progress this season. Walker has focused on locking in his approach at the plate, something the coaching staff has emphasized all year, and he's started to see it pay off in results.

By the All-Star break, Walker has increased his batting average by 30 points from last season and has bumped his walk rate.

Thomas has worked on being more selective, hunting the pitch he can do damage on instead of chasing everything in the zone. That’s resulted in 12 home runs at the break. Thomas didn’t hit a single long ball in Fayetteville last season.

Ask Thomas what people should know about Walker, and the answer has nothing to do with baseball.

"He's a real chill guy," Thomas said. "You go up, talk to him, have a 20 minute conversation with him. He's not going to big league you or anything."

Ask Walker the same about Thomas, and one word comes to mind before anything else: aura.

The two also talked celebrations. Specifically the “moon celebration” where Tourists hitters will put their arms above their heads and make a circle or moon shape.

That celebration traces back to infielder Narbe Cruz, who, before his stint on the IL, assigned the Tourists different celebrations depending on how they reached base. Singles and doubles got their own bits. Home runs got the moon.

"I was like, all right, I guess I got to do it now," Thomas said of his first homer with Asheville. "I did it, and it actually kind of stuck."

You can see that same celebration in some of the Tourists biggest moments of 2026.

It's since been joined by a few others: a "God bless" call after doubles that Thomas, Walker, Garcia and Ochoa all share, plus the Heisman pose and the Shedeur Sanders “perfect timing” watch celebration borrowed from social media. There's also the postgame selfie, a tradition that started with former teammate Drew Brutcher and has carried on since Asheville's turnaround this season.

Two years removed from a draft board, two guys who didn't know each other's faces are now the ones the whole clubhouse points to when you ask who is the closest pair on the team. So when the interview reached that final question, the two thought it would be easy.

"What would you name your duo?"

Thomas went first. "Yin and Yang? Salt and Pepper?"

Then Walker jumped in. "Batman and Robin. I'd be Batman, he'd be Robin."

"Oh no, definitely not," Thomas shot back. "I'm not Robin."

The two couldn't agree.

Walker made his case: Batman is the quiet one who gets things done, Robin is the sidekick. Thomas wasn't buying it. In the end, they left it unresolved, which might be the most fitting answer. Two guys who met by chance in Houston, who built a friendship out of road trips and inside jokes, still can't settle on a name for what they've built. Although you could argue that Asheville’s most lively duo really could be named Batman and Batman.