Lefty Framber Valdez is lastly off the board. The Tigers have landed the highest free-agent pitcher on a three-year contract value $115 million, studies ESPN. Valdez has an decide out after the second season and there are deferrals, studies The Athletic. The staff has not but saying the signing.
There are questions with Valdez that designate why he sat round in the marketplace till simply days earlier than pitchers and catchers report back to spring coaching. Nonetheless, there’s an excellent monitor file of success right here.
Valdez, 32, has been one of many recreation’s prime starters over the past six seasons, pitching to a 3.23 ERA since 2020 and averaging 30 begins and 192 innings per yr since 2021. He’s the sport’s preeminent floor ball starter. Since 2021, Valdez has gotten a floor ball on greater than 60% of balls in play, simply the best amongst beginning pitchers. The league common is round 42% grounders.
We ranked Valdez because the fourth-best free agent accessible this offseason, and the highest starter accessible. This is the write-up:
Valdez is not for everybody. He is a contact supervisor from a swing-and-miss technology who, yr in and yr out, belongs close to the backside of the majors in common exit velocity surrendered. In fact, that statistic would not inform the entire story. Valdez makes use of his three-pitch combine (sinker, curve, change) to coerce the form of earthbound contact that removes the sting from the ball. Pair him with some well-positioned and surehanded defenders and you will be proud of the end result. In any other case, why hassle?
Valdez rejected the qualifying supply earlier this offseason. The Tigers should give up a 2026 draft decide to signal him and the Astros, Valdez’s longtime staff, will obtain a 2026 compensation draft decide for dropping him to free company.
Keep in mind, Valdez got here up within the Astros’ system and debuted in 2018, pitching for present Tigers supervisor A.J. Hinch within the 2018-19 seasons earlier than Hinch was dismissed within the wake of the sign-stealing scandal.
In including Valdez, the Tigers now have a pair of frontline lefties atop the rotation together with two-time AL Cy Younger winner Tarik Skubal. Skubal is, in fact, a free agent after the 2026 season. The presence of Valdez within the rotation post-2026 helps mitigate a number of the potential lack of Skubal’s providers, until the Tigers are in a position to come to phrases on an extension with Skubal. There’s additionally the possibility the Tigers resolve to commerce Skubal and have Valdez take his place within the rotation, too, although that may be a considerable downgrade.
As issues stand, the Tigers look to have a doubtlessly sturdy rotation. Skubal and Valdez are a superb place to begin. Casey Mize was an All-Star final season, going 14-6 with a 3.87 ERA in 28 begins. Jack Flaherty has proven himself to be inconsistent for years, however when he is on, he seems to be like a frontline starter (most lately in 2024). Reese Olson is sort of succesful for somebody who figures to be the fifth starter and Drew Anderson is coming again to the majors after a 2.25 ERA in 30 begins in Korea in 2025.
The Tigers have made the playoffs and superior for 2 straight seasons, dropping in Sport 5 of the ALDS each occasions. They’d a 14-game lead final season and blew that, ending one recreation behind the Guardians for the AL Central title. Nonetheless, they bested Cleveland within the Wild Card Collection to advance.
The Tigers had been already arguably the favorites within the AL Central (+125, per Caesars), so including Valdez to beef up the rotation places them in higher place to take their first division crown since 2014.
