Rangers have seen enough of Valdez during his time with Astros, but he's now a free agent and is available.
The Texas Rangers have seen Framber Valdez enough when he pitched for the Houston Astros. Valdez has, at times, been a headache for opposing teams with his wicked arsenal of pitches, including a fierce curveball.
Now, though, Valdez is a free agent and is out on the market. With the Winter Meetings coming up in December, teams are going to be talking about either making trades or free agent splashes.
What's not to think that the Rangers might even look at adding Valdez to their pitching rotation? A pitcher of his caliber, who has pitched in the postseason and won a World Series, knows how to make pitches when it counts.
Recently, a few MLB scouts got together and reviewed four pitchers out on the free agent market at this time. Those pitchers are Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, Dylan Cease and Ranger Suárez. In an article for The Athletic, their opinions on all four were shared.
For this story, though, let's focus on their thoughts about Valdez.
"One of the five scouts who ranked Valdez first offered a succinct analysis based on a track record of durability and consistency: 'He’s good, and he posts,'" according to the article.
"Valdez, 32, boasts an impressive resume," the article states. "Over the last 25 years, he is one of just three pitchers (Max Fried and Felix Hernandez are the others) to have at least four seasons with at least a 23 percent strikeout rate, a 50 percent groundball rate and a 3.50 FIP or lower over at least 130 innings. Since 2020, no one has logged more innings in the playoffs (85) than Valdez, who owns a 4.34 ERA in the postseason."
Valdez knows how to get hitters out when it matters. That curveball starts out of his left hand at the top, then drops down at such a sharp angle that hitters think they can hit it. Well, they usually either ground out or ground into double plays.
Yes, Valdez has been somewhat of a head case at times, too. He had a notable encounter with an Astros catcher last season that led some people to believe that he's not too sharp when it comes to mentally being in the game.
Still, Valdez has an uncanny knack for being able to pitch in tight situations and come out unscathed.
In the scouts' poll of available free-agent pitchers, they discerned that "Valdez deserved to finish first in the poll, multiple scouts said, because of the combination of an elite groundball rate, a low walk rate, an ability to rack up strikeouts and the ability to tackle a healthy workload.
"Perhaps that is no surprise," the article indicates. "After all, Valdez is the highest-ranked pitcher on The Athletic’s Free Agent Big Board (No. 5 overall). Of the 78 pitchers with at least 500 innings over the past five seasons, Valdez ranks No. 1 in groundball rate and No. 3 in homer rate."
Imagine having a pitcher like Valdez in the Rangers rotation. He's a viable left-handed starter who can deliver when the Rangers need him to do so. And, well, what's not to like about Valdez potentially facing his old team, the Astros, in games that matter down the stretch?
It's enough to give Rangers fans some jollies. But Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young and new manager Skip Schumaker probably know what they want their rotation to look like before the 2026 MLB season starts.
Would Valdez be a solid addition? That's going to be up to them.