Framber Valdez

Framber Valdez (born November 19, 1993) is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). Valdez signed with the Astros as an international free agent in 2015. He made his MLB debut in 2018.

Framber Valdez
Houston Astros – No. 59
Pitcher
Born: (1993-11-19) November 19, 1993
Palenque, Dominican Republic
Bats: Left Throws: Left
MLB debut
August 21, 2018, for the Houston Astros
MLB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Win–loss record13–11
Earned run average4.19
Strikeouts178
Teams

Early life

Framber Valdez was born in Palenque, San Cristóbal Province, Dominican Republic.[1] He starting pitching at age 16.[2]

Career

Valdez signed with the Houston Astros as an international free agent on March 19, 2015, for a $10,000 signing bonus.[3] At age 21, he was five years older than most amateur free agent signings from his country.[2] Two Astros scouts spotted him after a long day of viewing programs led by independent trainers.[3] Watching him throw only six pitches, they offered him a tryout at their Dominican academy near Guayacanes.[2]

Valdez made his professional debut in 2015 with the DSL Astros, going 4–1 with a 3.68 ERA over ​36 2⁄3 innings. He split the 2016 season between the Greeneville Astros, Tri City ValleyCats, Quad Cities River Bandits, and Lancaster JetHawks, combining to go 4–5 with a 3.19 ERA over ​73 1⁄3 innings. He split the 2017 season between the Buies Creek Astros and the Corpus Christi Hooks, going a combined 7–8 with a 4.16 ERA over ​110 1⁄3 innings. Following the 2017 season, he played for the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League.[4]

He split the 2018 minor league season between Corpus Christi and the Fresno Grizzlies, going a combined 6–5 with a 4.11 ERA over 103 innings.[5][6]

The Astros promoted Valdez to the major leagues for the first time on August 21, 2018.[7] He made his debut that day, pitching ​4 1⁄3 innings and earning the win.[8] With Houston in 2018, he went 4–1 with a 2.19 ERA over 37 innings.

He split the 2019 season between the Round Rock Express and Houston. With Round Rock, he went 5–2 with a 3.25 ERA over ​44 1⁄3 innings. With Houston, he went 4–7 with a 5.86 ERA over ​70 2⁄3 innings.[9][10]

In 2020, he was 5–3 with a 3.57 ERA in 11 games (10 starts), in which he threw ​70 2⁄3 innings and struck out 76 batters (8th in the AL), and had the second-best home runs/9 IP ratio in the AL (0.637).[11] He was named Astros Pitcher of the Year by the Houston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.[12]

On September 29, 2020, Valdez became the first relief pitcher to throw 5 scoreless innings in the playoffs since Madison Bumgarner did so in Game 7 in the 2014 World Series. Framber has had great success in the playoffs and took his team into the ALCS and almost led them to World Series.[13]

Personal life

Valdez is married with one child.[14]

References
  1. "Framber Valdez Stats". Baseball Almanac. 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  2. Kyle, Brad (August 21, 2018). "From Out Of Nowhere, Dominican Lefty Framber Valdez Bolsters Astros' Bullpen". The Runner Sports. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  3. Kaplan, Jake (August 25, 2018). "Scouting Framber Valdez: The story behind the Astros' little-known left-hander". The Athletic. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  4. Ryan Dunsmore (October 10, 2017). "2017 Arizona Fall League Primer: Astros send Tucker and Alvarez to Mesa". The Crawfish Boxes. SB Nation. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  5. John Sickels (September 4, 2018). "Thoughts on Astros prospect Framber Valdez". Minor League Ball. SB Nation. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  6. Carson Cistulli (August 10, 2018). "The Fringe Five: Baseball's Most Compelling Fringe Prospects". FanGraphs.com. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  7. Chandler Rome (August 21, 2018). "Astros add pitcher Framber Valdez to 25-man roster". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  8. Chandler Rome. "Framber Valdez helps lift Astros past Mariners in major league debut". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  9. RotoWire Staff (October 2, 2019). "Astros' Framber Valdez: Not on playoff roster". CBSSports.com. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  10. Jake Kaplan (June 13, 2019). "The hidden talent of Astros starter Framber Valdez". The Athletic. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  11. "Framber Valdez Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  12. Van Doren, Kenny (October 8, 2020). "Astros: How Framber Valdez came to be a blossoming ace". Fansided. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  13. "Astros' Framber Valdez: Shines in Game 1". CBS Sports. September 29, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  14. Kaplan, Jake (August 27, 2020). "Small sample or a breakout? What's different about Framber Valdez". The Athletic. Retrieved October 12, 2020.


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