Framber Valdez joining Tigers on historic $115 million deal to end long free agency

The top remaining free agent pitcher has a new home.Framber Valdez has agreed to a three-year, $115 million contract with the Tigers, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed.The deal includes an opt-out after year two.The deal has the highest average annual value ($38.3 million) for a left-handed pitcher in MLB history, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The Blue Jays were among several teams interested in Valdez as recently as Tuesday, The Post reported.But it’s the Tigers, who already have two-time defending Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in the rotation, who land Valdez.The 32-year-old Valdez has been a reliable workhorse for the Astros over the last eight years, but really stepped up his game in 2021.

That season, he started a five-year stretch of reaching at least 134 innings, hitting the 190-inning threshold three times.He was twice named an All-Star and helped the Astros win the 2022 World Series over the Phillies.In 2025, Valdez went 13-11 with a 3.66 ERA over 192 frames.Instead of overpowering velocity, Valdez primarily wields a sinker-curveball combination.

With that arsenal, his ground-ball rate ranked in the 97th percentile in baseball last season.Valdez now slots into the Tigers’ starting rotation, presumably as the No.2 hurler behind Skubal and ahead of righties Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty.Detroit, despite a horrific final stretch in October that saw the division title slip away, still made the playoffs as a wild-card entrant and beat the American League Central-winning Guardians in the first round before getting eliminated by the Mariners in the ALDS.

Now armed with one of the deeper pitching staffs in the AL, the Tigers should firmly be in the mix as one of the contenders in the junior circuit....