Framber Valdez shows his worth and growth in Tigers' home opener

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At the time, Valdez was 21 years old. He had been passed over at the age at which most Latin American pitchers signed with major-league clubs. He was the truest definition of a diamond in the rough, a left-handed pitcher scouts literally needed more light to appreciate. All these years later, Valdez warmed in the Comerica Park bullpen, a sold-out crowd cheering as his name was introduced over the speakers. Valdez — even if overshadowed by the return of Justin Verlander and the phenomenon that is Kevin McGonigle — was the defining move of the Tigers’ offseason, the type of acquisition that could help a good team become great. He is a pitcher the Tigers will turn to every five or six days with expectations of dominance, and such was the case in the Tigers’ 4-0 home-opening victory against the St. Louis Cardinals. “We faced him in some big moments,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who once managed a young Valdez in Houston, “and I’ve seen him on the biggest stage, and he never backs down from the competition. I value that a lot in deciding how long to let him go or how much to push him, because he’s usually just a groundball away from escaping just about anything.” Friday was one of those baseball days dreams are made of. Blue skies with just the right amount of cloud cover, 70 degrees at first pitch. Old friends reunited and generations banded together in parking lots before dawn, cracking beers and commencing the annual ritual that is Detroit’s finest holiday. Valdez, a man who started four Opening Days for the Astros, responded with a workmanlike six scoreless innings, featuring three hits, two walks and five strikeouts. The left-hander’s performance helped steer the Tigers out of an early four-game skid. The game reinforced Valdez’s status as a stabilizing force and also hinted at ways he might still be growing, now in his age-32 season. “He has a really good reset button,” Hinch said. Case in point: In the fourth inning of a tight game, Valdez surrendered a leadoff single. He struck out the next two batters before inducing a groundball to first baseman Spencer Torkelson. Torkelson corralled the ball and threw to Valdez as he was in mid-stride to cover first. Valdez put up both arms. The ball tipped off the fingertips of Valdez’s bare left hand. The play was ruled an error on Valdez. Hinch and trainer Ryne Eubanks then came to the mound to check on their pitcher, who was looking down at his fingers. The ball had caused some throbbing, but Valdez remained in the game. He walked the next batter to load the bases. At a different point in Valdez’s career, the game might have unraveled at this point. He once carried a reputation for being emotional on the mound. At times in his ascension, Valdez struggled to move past mistakes. His body language could sour after things went awry. Quality from La Grasa in his home debut 🔥 pic.twitter.com/h8K3hYUtA8 — Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 3, 2026 Valdez, though, has worked over the years to harness his emotions, to control his breathing, to calm his mind. “Yes, he’s highly emotional. Yes, he can get frustrated when things don’t go his way,” Hinch said. “He controls it by controlling his emotions in the big moments and gets back (to) the task at hand, which is the next pitch. You can’t do anything about the previous pitch that you made. Young pitchers who are listening, that’s a great reset tool to develop, because when you get up here, you’re going to need it.” This dynamic was even at the center of Valdez’s highly publicized incident last season, when Valdez gave up a home run, then may or may not have intentionally crossed up catcher César Salazar. After a pitch ricocheted off his own catcher’s chest protector, Valdez turned his back and walked around the mound, unemotional. The explanation after the fact was that Valdez had learned this tactic — turn, walk around the mound, reset — from an Astros sports psychologist, as a means of staying locked in and moving forward. Last season’s controversy aside, Valdez has looked nothing but steady since coming to the Tigers. Away from the field, the pitcher with the nickname “La Grasa” inscribed on his glimmering belt still keeps large bottles of cologne atop his locker and is known to drive flashy cars. On the mound, though, Valdez has been a model of understated stability since his first day of spring training. He is the game’s pre-eminent groundball artist. He spams sinkers to sting hitters on the hands and twirls curveballs to get them lunging. The Tigers put their best defensive infield alignment — Spencer Torkelson at first, Zach McKinstry at second, Javier Báez at shortstop and Kevin McGonigle at third — to support him. A pitcher who last season criticized his own team’s defensive positioning is so far talking like the consummate teammate. “It’s important to know if something happens, say they have an error or anything, I support my teammates,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “If they make a mistake, be with them and support them, and they will do better on the next play. It’s important to be like that, and I was very comfortable with having them behind me.” In a bases-loaded jam of his own doing Friday, Valdez got José Fermin to hit a lazy fly ball to left field for the third out. He then retired six of his final seven hitters, ending the day with an efficient six-pitch sixth inning. For the record, he said the pain in his finger went away after about 10 pitches. He left the field to a large roar from the crowd. He said the reception made him feel like family. “I think this is the best home opener, or Opening Day, I’ve ever had in my career,” Valdez said. “It’s my first new team I’ve signed with as a free agent — first big contract. I’m glad I was able to perform well for my teammates and the city that gave me so much love.” Valdez displayed precisely why his signing meant so much to this team. Whereas Tarik Skubal can dominate with impeccable command and electric stuff, Valdez operates like a workhorse optimized for efficiency. McGonigle, who had a busy day vacuuming up grounders at third base, praised Valdez’s ability to generate weak contact. Catcher Dillon Dingler marveled at the way Valdez’s pitches move to keep hitters guessing. Before the game, Verlander chimed in with his own review. “You just see him get so many groundballs,” Verlander said when asked what he admires most about Valdez. “Just weak groundball after weak groundball, and then he gets swing-and-miss with the curveball. … And then, also his durability. As someone like myself who really for a long time took the ball every five days and logged as many innings as possible and was raised by the old guard like that, to see him make most starts — I knock on wood as I’m saying this — and stay healthy and log innings, that’s something I really appreciate.” Valdez, at his best, can breeze through lineups and cruise through games. Over the past four years, he has led all left-handed pitchers with 767 2/3 innings, 83 quality starts, 750 strikeouts and 57 wins. Now here he is in Detroit. At a new stage in his career, he still knows how to perform when the lights are bright. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Cody Stavenhagen is a senior writer covering the Detroit Tigers and Major League Baseball for The Athletic. Previously, he covered Michigan football at The Athletic and Oklahoma football and basketball for the Tulsa World, where he was named APSE Beat Writer of the Year for his circulation group in 2016. He is a native of Amarillo, Texas. Follow Cody on Twitter @CodyStavenhagen