Framber Valdez makes a notable admission about the Astros

Tuesday marks a special day for Detroit Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez, as he makes his return to Houston for the first time since signing a three-year contract ($115 million) with the Tigers in the offseason. 

One of the top arms on the market last season, Valdez did come with baggage, which caused some organizations to shy away from the three-time top 10 Cy Young Award finisher. This included his former club, the Houston Astros, who didn't even offer a contract to the two-time All-Star. 

Valdez had been a part of the Astros organization since he was signed as an amateur free agent in March of 2015.

Framber Valdez states the Astros never offered him a contract

“I would have loved for my team of eight, nine years to call me back and to stay home, but it’s part of the business and I understand that,” Valdez said to Matt Young of The Houston Chronicle. “No hard feelings at all. I’m very grateful and thankful for them for giving me the chance to become the player that I am. They gave me the opportunity to be a Major League player, they gave me the opportunity to be here and get a good contract as a professional.” 

The 2022 World Series champion spent nine seasons in an Astros uniform, where he went 81-52 with a 3.36 ERA and 1,053 strikeouts (10th all-time in franchise history). The issue surrounding Valdez was his attitude on the mound, specifically an incident with his catcher, Cesar Salazar. 

Valdez intentionally crossed up Salazar, throwing a fastball instead of a breaking ball or off-speed pitch that Salazar had called, causing the 30-year-old to take a shot off his mask. This incident prompted Valdez and his agent to attend the general managers' meetings in the winter to assuage other front offices' fears that he's a problematic player. 

That has also been hard to disprove, as Valdez received a three-game suspension earlier this season after he intentionally threw at Boston Red Sox Trevor Story. Valdez felt the Red Sox were stealing his signs. 

Despite Valdez's feelings on the Astros not bringing him back, his former teammate and his opponent for Tuesday, Hunter Brown, is excited to square off against his old rotation mate. 

“It’s exciting,” Brown said to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. “I’m sure he’s excited to pitch in this park again. He did a lot of really great things for this team. I wish him well -- not too well, of course. Maybe we can tag up more than I give up for us. That would be the most ideal.”

Framber Valdez should have known he was never coming back to Houston due to owner Jim Crane

Despite winning two World Series titles in the last 15 years, Astros owner Jim Crane won't spend big to win the titles; the main reason is the luxury tax. 

“The luxury tax is the luxury tax,” he [Crane] said to Matt Postins of Sports Illustrated back in January. “I feel like we made a luxury move, but we have the opportunity to maneuver that around. Everyone writes that I’m afraid of the luxury tax. I’m not necessarily afraid of it, but I run the team like a business and there’s only so much resources you can put into it without going deep in the hole. We don’t operate like a lot of the bigger market teams, but you’ve seen over the years we’ll spend the money when we think it’s right and we’ll be aggressive when we have to be. The template has been there for a long time. Every [trade] deadline, we’ve made some pretty big moves.”

Given his stance on the luxury tax and a history of never giving starting pitchers long-term contracts, Valdez should have seen the writing on the wall. The Astros had Gerrit Cole in his prime and chose to let him walk after 2019 to sign his lucrative (nine years, $324 million) contract with the New York Yankees. 

Instead of paying up to re-sign Valdez, the Astros chose to sign Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai to the same number of years (three) but significantly less money ($54 million).