The Detroit Tigers have reached a three-year, $115 million agreement with left-handed pitcher Valdez.

According to MLB.com reporter Mark Feinsand on February 5 local time, left-hander Framber Valdez has agreed to a three-year, $115 million deal with the Detroit Tigers, which includes an opt-out clause after the second season. The team has not yet officially confirmed the transaction.

This contract carries an average annual salary of $38.3 million, setting a new record for left-handed pitchers, surpassing Blake Snell’s $36.4 million average, and also becoming the highest average salary for a pitcher from Latin America.

Valdez has established a consistently effective pitching style in the majors, combining reliable strikeout ability with a high ground ball rate, posting a cumulative ERA of only 3.23 over 973 innings pitched since early 2020.

The 2025 season marked Valdez’s third time in four years with at least 30 starts, finishing with a 3.66 ERA and recording 187 strikeouts in 192 innings. After the season, the Houston Astros offered him a qualifying offer of $22.025 million, which he declined. The offer included draft pick compensation, so the Astros will receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round.

In the past six years, only four pitchers have logged more innings than Valdez, whose adjusted ERA+ of 128 ranks eighth among all pitchers with at least 100 starts during that period.

For a pitcher standing just 1.80 meters tall, lacking the traditional ace physique, and having an unconventional path to the majors, this record is particularly remarkable.

The Astros signed Valdez when he was 21 years old, which is older than most Latin American prospects typically sign their first professional contracts. In the winter of 2015, two Astros scouts spent a full day scouting prospects in southeastern Dominican Republic and arranged a tryout for him on short notice. They watched Valdez pitch a few throws on a field in Guayacanes town illuminated by headlights, which was enough to spark their interest. A few days later, Valdez attended an official tryout at the team’s training facility in Santo Domingo and ultimately signed with the Astros for a $10,000 signing bonus.

What attracted the team most was Valdez’s highly effective curveball, which remains his signature pitch years later. Over 61% of his career strikeouts have come from this pitch, which complements his sinker excellently.

After signing, Valdez advanced relatively quickly through the Astros’ farm system but was never considered a top prospect and was once doubted whether he could be a starting pitcher in the majors. His initial major league performance was inconsistent: between 2018 and 2019, he appeared in 34 games (13 starts) with a 4.60 ERA.

However, Valdez broke out during the shortened 2020 season. With the team losing free agent Gerrit Cole to the New York Yankees and Justin Verlander undergoing Tommy John surgery due to elbow injury, Valdez successfully took on the role of the Astros’ ace pitcher.

In 2022, Valdez had his best season, leading the American League with 201.1 innings pitched, posting a 2.82 ERA and striking out 194 batters in the regular season, finishing fifth in the AL Cy Young Award voting. In the playoffs, he recorded a 1.44 ERA over four starts, helping the Astros win the World Series championship.