Framber Valdéz

Framber Valdez Pinales

Bats Right, Throws Left
Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.

Debut August 21, 2018

Born November 19, 1993 in Sabana Grande de Palenque, San Cristobal D.R.

Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Framber Valdéz made his major league debut with the Houston Astros towards the end of the [[2018 Astros|2018]¸season, going 4-1, 2.19 in 8 games for the defending World Champions. He was not used n the postseason that year, nor in 2019 when he went 4-7, 5.86 as a swingman, totalling 70 2/3 innings in 26 games. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he matched his inning total from the previous season exactly, making 10 starts in 11 appearances and going 5-3, 3.57. The Astros reached the postseason once again, and he finally got to make his debut in these games as he won Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Minnesota Twins on September 29th with an excellent relief outing in which he did not give up a run on 2 hits in relief of Zack Greinke and received credit for the Astros' 4-1 win when Houston scored three runs in the top of the 9th to break a 1-1 tie. He was pitching so well that manager Dusty Baker did not bother to bring out his closer to pitch the bottom of the 9th, letting Framber finish the job. He then made three starts, one in the Division Series against the Oakland Athletics and two in the ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays, winning twice and losing once, and going at least 6 innings every time.

Given his excellent work in 2020, he was expected to become a top-level starter in 2021, but that did not happen immediately as injuries limited to 22 starts, keeping him from piling up truly impressive numbers. Still, he was excellent when he was able to take the mound, finishing at 11-6, 3.14 with 125 strikeouts in 134 2/3 innings. the Astros made another deep run in the postseason, all the way to Game 6 of the World Series and he made 5 starts along the way, although he was not as good as the previous season: he did win Game 5 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox on October 20th with a dominant performance in which he gave up just 1 run in 8 innings in a 9-1 win, but in his first two starts of the postseason, he had given up 7 runs in 7 innings combined, and his two World Series starts against the Atlanta Braves did not go well either. In Game 1 on October 26th, he allowed 5 runs on 8 hits in 2 innings of work, including homers by Jorge Soler to lead off the game and Adam Duvall with none out in the 3rd to be charged with a 6-2 loss, and in Game 5 on October 31st he again failed to get out of the 3rd inning, having given up 5 runs and 2 more homers, to Duvall and Freddie Freeman, although Houston rallied to win the game, 9-5.

He did emerge as one of the top pitchers in the American League in 2022, when he made the All-Star team for the first time, although he could not properly be called the staff ace on a team that also featured a rejuvenated Justin Verlander pitching as well as he ever had. He matched his win total from the previous season by recording his 11th on August 11th and on August 24th recorded his 21st consecutive quality start, setting a new franchise record by bettering the mark set by Mike Scott in 1986. He gave up 1 runs on 2 hits in 7 innings against the Minnesota Twins that day to improve his record to 13-4. With another quality start on August 30th, he claimed the longest streak of consecutive quality starts by a lefthander in major league history. On September 12th, he pitched his first career shutout, a 7-0 win over the Detroit Tigers which was also his 24th straight quality start. He finished the season at 17-6, 2.82 in 31 starts. He led the AL in innings pitched (201 1/3), batters faced (827) and complete games (3) and was one of a number of pitchers to tie for the major league lead with 1 shutout. In the postseason, he helped the Astros win their second World Series title by going 3-0, 1.44 in 4 starts, including two wins over the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.

With Verlander gone in 2023, he had to assume the ace's mantle for the Astros and did so ably, putting up an ERA of 2.27 over his first 15 starts. He was named to the All-Star team for the second straight year and on August 1st pitched a complete game no-hitter in defeating the Cleveland Guardians, 2-0. It was the first complete game no-no for an Astros pitcher since Verlander had pitched the third one of his career in 2019 and came on the day that the Astros re-acquired Verlander in a trading deadline deal with the New York Mets. He was the first lefthander in franchise history to achieve the feat and faced the minimum 27 batters. His only fault was a lead-off walk to Oscar Gonzalez in the 5th inning, but he was wiped out on a double play. He struck out seven batters and needed just 93 pitches to achieve the feat, never using more than 14 in any inning. On August 25th, he made a bid to match that feat by starting off a game against the Detroit Tigers with seven hitless innings, before leaving the game, having thrown a season-high 114 pitches. Pinch-hitter Kerry Carpenter singled off reliever Bryan Abreu with one out in the 8th inning. However, the Astros only had a 1-0 lead heading into the 9th, but after the two batters struck out, Detroit managed to score four runs to win the game, 4-1. Framber finished the season at 12-11, 3.45 in 31 starts, leading the AL with 2 shutouts. he struck out an even 200 batters in 198 innings. Things went poorly in the postseason, however, as he made three starts and lost all three, giving up 13 runs on 19 hits in 12 innings.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2-time AL All-Star (2022 & 2023)
AL Innings Pitched Leader (2022)
AL Complete Games Leader (2022)
2-time AL Shutouts Leader (2022 & 2023)
15 Wins Seasons: 1 (2022)
200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 1 (2022)
200 Strikeouts Seasons: 1 (2023)
Won one World Series with the Houston Astros in 2022

Related Sites[edit]

Framber Valdez on mlb.com

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Framber Valdéz

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