{"id":14026,"date":"2025-05-09T18:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/14026\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T18:56:11","slug":"cubs-get-positive-framber-valdez-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/14026\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Get Positive Framber Valdez Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Jed Hoyer has shown one thing over the past few years, he’s in love with left-handed starters.<\/p>\n

When the Chicago Cubs needed a right-hander during the offseason, all he did was go out and add Matthew Boyd. Boyd, who isn’t a bad arm by any means, has thrown the baseball at an excellent level for the Cubs, posting a 2.75 ERA.<\/p>\n

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However, even before the injuries to Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele, the Cubs had a huge need for a right-handed starter.<\/p>\n

Despite the prior need, there could be a scenario where adding another left-hander makes sense now.<\/p>\n

While the Cubs should look to get two dominant starters at the deadline, adding one right-hander and one left-hander, as long as they add one ace-caliber starter, they should be fine.<\/p>\n

\"Chicago<\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs pitcher Justin Steele (35) looks on after throwing a pitch against the Athletics during the second inning at Sutter Health Park.Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

According to a poll run by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com<\/a>, executives around the league expect Framber Valdez to be one of the four most likely players traded at the deadline.<\/p>\n

The Houston Astros haven’t kept their guys around in recent years, evident by their decision to trade Kyle Tucker to the Cubs during the offseason.<\/p>\n

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For Valdez, who hits free agency at the end of the season, he’s expected to be available at the deadline if the Astros are out of contention.<\/p>\n

He’s been decent to start the year, posting a 3.94 ERA and already throwing in 48.0 innings. However, he hasn’t been as dominant as he’s typically been, when he posted a 2.91 ERA in 176.1 innings two years ago.<\/p>\n

Valdez is a rental, but it’s important to remember that arms of his caliber during recent deadlines have gone for ridiculous packages.<\/p>\n

If the Cubs want, they could offer the Astros that, but it remains to be seen who they’re willing to give up.<\/p>\n

Related: Cubs Fans Want Veteran Cut Amid Poor Performance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Jed Hoyer has shown one thing over the past few years, he’s in love with left-handed starters.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,79,54,393,29,2000,4,770],"class_list":{"0":"post-14026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-framber-valdez","14":"tag-houston-astros","15":"tag-justin-steele","16":"tag-kyle-tucker","17":"tag-matthew-boyd","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-shota-imanaga"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114479405789523356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}