The best remaining free agent pitcher has a new home.
Framber Valdez has agreed to a three-year, $115 million contract with the Tigers, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed.
The deal includes an opt-out after year two.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the deal has the highest average annual value ($38.3 million) for a left-handed pitcher in MLB history.
The Blue Jays were among several teams interested in Valdez on Tuesday, The Post reported.
But it’s the Tigers, who already have two-time defending Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in the rotation, who land Valdez.
The 32-year-old Valdez has been a reliable workhorse for the Astros over the past eight years, but has really stepped up his game in 2021. That season, he began a five-year streak of reaching a minimum of 134 innings, reaching the 190-inning threshold three times. He was named an All-Star twice and helped the Astros win the 2022 World Series over the Phillies.
In 2025, Valdez went 13-11 with a 3.66 ERA over 192 frames.
Instead of overpowering the speed, Valdez primarily uses a sinker-curveball combination. With that arsenal, his groundball percentage ranked in the 97th percentile in baseball last season.
Valdez now joins the Tigers’ starting rotation, likely as the No. 2 pitcher behind Skubal and ahead of righties Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty.
Notably, Skubal is awaiting an arbitration decision — expected Thursday — after filing for $32 million and the Tigers for $19 million. The $13 million gap is an MLB record.
Detroit, despite a horrific final stretch in October that saw the division title slip away, still made the playoffs as a wild-card entrant, defeating the American League Central-winning Guardians in the first round before being eliminated by the Mariners in the ALDS.
Now armed with one of the deeper pitching staffs in the AL, the Tigers should be firmly in the mix as one of the contenders in the junior circuit.
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