José Valdespina

José Alexander Valdespina Ruiz

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 6", Weight 220 lb.

• Born March 22, 1992 in Santiago, Santiago D.R.

BR register page

Biographical Information

José Valdespina peaked at AAA. He also has pitched for the Dominican national team.

Valdespina was signed by Texas Rangers scout Roberto Aquino in February 2011. He was 2-3 with a save and a 2.82 ERA for the 2011 DSL Rangers 1. He came stateside in 2012 with the Spokane Indians and fell to 3-6, 5.58. He was 4th in the Northwest League in losses, 4th in walks (34), 2nd in hit batsmen (11) and led in balks (6). Moving to relief, he was 4-1 with 2 saves and a 5.70 ERA for the Hickory Crawdads, K'ing 46 in 42 2/3 IP. In 2014, he was 2-2 with 9 saves, a .217 opponent average (.172 by righties) and a 2.18 ERA for Hickory. He made his Dominican Winter League debut with the Tigres del Licey with 1 2/3 shutout IP (2 H, 3 BB). He split 2015 between the High Desert Mavericks (1-1, 4 Sv, 2.25 in 25 G) and the Frisco RoughRiders (2.31 in 8 G), again doing a fine job.

In 2016, he was with Frisco (4-1, 3 Sv, 4.01 in 31 G) and the Round Rock Express (0-1, Sv, 2.45 in 9 G), making his AAA debut. With the Tigres, he worked a shutout inning, with one hit allowed. He bounced around the Rangers chain in 2017, struggling with the Express (1-1, 16.50 in 5 G, 16 H in 6 IP), RoughRiders (0-1, 4.50 in 3 G), Down East Wood Ducks (Sv, 3.22 in 15 G) and AZL Rangers (1 R in 2 IP). With Licey, he once again turned in a shutout inning, allowing one hit. He finished his time in the Rangers chain at 18-17, 4.03 with 21 saves in 184 games (25 starts).

The tall right-hander led the Dominicans with four games pitched in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games. In 3 2/3 innings, he allowed two hits and two walks while fanning one. Despite pitching the most games for his country, he was their only pitcher with a 0.00 ERA. For the 2018 Games, only Aaron Kurcz, Fernando Cruz and Bryan Escanio pitched more games.