Left-hander Framber Valdez and the Detroit Tigers are in agreement on a three-year, $115 million contract, sources told ESPN, linking the best free agent left-hander on the market with the team looking to win its first division title in more than a decade.
The deal, which is pending a physical and contains an opt-out after the second season, came together just hours after the Tigers finished an arbitration hearing with two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Should the Tigers keep Skubal — an impending free agent who is seeking a $32 million salary, while Detroit countered at $19 million — he and Valdez would form among the most potent top-of-the-rotation combinations in baseball.
In Valdez, 32, Detroit landed one of baseball’s foremost workhorses and winningest pitchers, a late bloomer whose high-octane sinker and propensity to gobble innings made him among the most productive arms in the game over the past half-decade. While concerns about paying Valdez late into his 30s precluded him from receiving a longer-term deal, his $38.3 million salary set a record for left-handed pitchers and for pitchers from Latin America.
Editor’s Picks
2 Related
Valdez, who is from the Dominican Republic, hit free agency after spending his career with the Houston Astros and putting up one of the best résumés of any starting pitcher since he joined Houston’s rotation in 2020. The move reunites him with A.J. Hinch, his former manager in Houston, and slots him behind Skubal in a rotation that also includes Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Reese Olson, with free agent signing Drew Anderson and hard-throwing rookie Troy Melton also candidates.
Whether Skubal remains with the Tigers is among the most pressing questions as spring training begins next week. While Detroit has resisted offers to trade him, the comfort in having a frontline backup as accomplished as Valdez would help mitigate any potential deal.
Valdez is a dependable lefty with extensive playoff experience who has regularly posted ERAs in the high-2s to mid-3s, averaging 3.20 since 2021, and that mark is driven by the highest ground ball rate in the league among starters in that span. With a sinker that averaged 94.3 mph, a hard changeup and a malevolent curveball, Valdez has been a weak-contact king, emerging from an unknown to become the ninth nine-figure signing by Major League Baseball teams this winter.
Originally signed for $10,000 as a 21-year-old by the Astros, Valdez shook off worries about the health of his arm by making dependability his foremost quality on the mound. Valdez has thrown 973 innings since 2020, the fifth-most in baseball, and has been on the injured list only twice, with a fractured finger and for two weeks with elbow inflammation. With top prospects Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark primed to join a Tigers team that already was the favorite to win the AL Central for the first time since 2014, Valdez validated his willingness to wait for a representative contract. The deal, negotiated by Ulises Cabrera of Octagon, includes a $20 million signing bonus — 2,000 times the size of his first bonus.
Valdez was tendered a $22.025 million qualifying offer by the Astros, which he declined by the Nov. 18 deadline. Because he signed with a new team, Houston will receive a compensatory selection after the competitive balance round B in the draft, around the 75th pick.
Since 2020, when he became a full-time starter, Valdez is tied for first in the majors in wins (73), is sixth in pitcher WAR (20.3) and first in groundball rate (62%). He led the American League with 201⅓ innings pitched in 2022 and has made two All-Star appearances, received AL MVP votes in two seasons and received AL Cy Young Award votes in four races, peaking at a fifth-place finish in 2022.
