Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Framber Valdez was born on November 19, 1993, in Palenque, Dominican Republic. He is a pitcher in the MLB.

He began his professional career with the Dominican Summer League Astros on 2015, going 4-1 with a 3.68 ERA (15ER/36.2IP) and 36 strikeouts in 16 games.

Made his Major League debut in August 2018, and dazzled over the final two months of the season. He generated groundballs at an extremely high rate, posting a 70.3% groundball rate and a 4.27 groundball to flyball ratio. He’s among MLB rookies with at least 30.0 innings pitched, he ranked first in groundball rate, second in ERA and sixth in opponent batting average (.175).

He was successful as both a starter and a reliever and went 2-1 with a 2.59 ERA (7ER/24.1IP) and 20 strikeouts in his five starts, and 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA (2ER/12.2IP) in three relief appearances. Left-handed hitters went just 4x32 (.125) with no extra-base hits against him.

He began the season at Double A Corpus Christi, then he was promoted to Triple A Fresno on August 8, were he was selected to the Major League roster on August 21, making his MLB debut on that same day at SEA, tossing 4.1 innings of relief, allowed one unearned run on two hits, striking out four while leading the Astros to a 3-2 win, earning his first Major League victory. With that, he became the fifth pitcher in club history to throw 4.1+ relief innings in a MLB debut, and just the second to do so while recording a win, joining Don Wilson, who threw 6.0 innings and got the win in his debut on Sept. 29, 1966.

He became the second pitcher in Astros history to throw 4.1+ relief innings without allowing an earned run in a Major League debut, joining Joe Musgrove, who went 4.1 scoreless innings his debut on Aug. 2, 2016.

He made his first Major League start on August 26 at LAA and tossed 5.0 innings, allowing one run on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts in the Astros 3-1 win, getting his second Major League victory and first as a starter, then he became the fifth pitcher in franchise history to earn a win in his first two Major League appearances.

He also became the sixth pitcher in MLB history to start a career like this, and the first Astros pitcher to strike out nine batters in a relief appearance since Jerry Reuss fanned 10 batters in 7.1 relief innings on Sept. 22, 1972. 24-year-old is also the youngest left-handed pitcher to strike out nine batters in a relief appearance since a 23-year old Johan Santana struck out nine batters in 4.1 innings of relief innings on Sept. 2, 2002.

On April 7, 2022, Valdez won his debut as an Opening Day starting pitcher, opposite Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani, recording 6+2⁄3 scoreless innings in a 3–1 final. Valdez, relying on his sinker in 50 percent of pitches thowm, got nine total ground ball outs and also retired 15 consecutive batters. In a season in which he reached many career-best figures, Valdez hurled 25 straight quality starts from April 25—September 18, establishing the MLB record for most consecutive over a single season. It also set the record for most consecutive total in American League history and among left-handed pitchers, and trailed only Bob Gibson and Jacob deGrom (tied at 26) for most consecutive all-time.

Valdez tied his season-high with seven strikeouts over seven innings versus the Texas Rangers on May 19, allowing one run on six hits to lead a 5–1 win. He achieved his first nine-inning complete game on May 30 versus the Athletics at Oakland Coliseum, a two-hitter and 5–1 Astros win. On July 3, Valdez reached a new career-high 13 strikeouts, among five walks in six innings in a start versus the Angels. Twelve consecutive outs Valdez produced were via strikeout, supplanting the franchise record of nine previously accomplished by Don Wilson, Randy Johnson, and Gerrit Cole (twice). Valdez' 13 were the first of 20 Astros strikeouts, establishing a franchise record for a nine-inning game.

Valdez was named to the MLB All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, his first career selection. His 2.64 ERA ranked second on the Astros' staff and he also had pitched two complete games, tying for the major league lead. He pitched in the third inning of the All-Star Game, retiring all three batters faced, and received the win when the American League scored the go-ahead run after he had finished. Valdez became the first in Astros history to receive the win in an All-Star Game, and the first to receive any kind of decision since Roger Clemens in 2004.

On August 24, Valdez reached 21 consecutive quality starts with one run allowed over seven innings versus the Minnesota Twins, passing Mike Scott's club record established in 1986. Valdez became the fifth pitcher since 2000 to accomplish twenty in a row. On September 12, he threw his first major league complete-game shutout, a 7–0 win over the Detroit Tigers. Through September 14, 2022, Valdez had induced the highest career ground ball rate (66.3%) of any pitcher since 1988, and only Derek Lowe had surpassed that figure in any individual season (2002 and 2006).

For the 2022 regular season, Valdez produced a 2.82 ERA and 17–6 record over 31 games started. He led the AL in innings pitched (201+1⁄3), batters faced (827), complete games (3), shutouts (1), quality starts (26), and HR/9 IP (0.492), all of which were career-bests to that point. His win total placed second in the AL, while his ERA was sixth, and 194 strikeouts were seventh, tied with Cristian Javier for the team lead. He threw sinkers 49% of the time, the highest percentage in major league baseball, and his 83 mph cutter was the slowest among major league pitchers.

As starter of Game 2 of the 2022 World Series, Valdez struck out nine Philadelphia Phillies batters over 6+1⁄3 innings to earn his first career win in World Series play following a 5–2 Astros victory. Valdez started and became the winning pitcher in the Astros' Game 6 Series clincher, working six innings while allowing one run on two hits and striking out nine to give him his first career championship. During the 2022 postseason, he was 4–0 with a 1.61 ERA and .144 batting average against.