{"id":546727,"date":"2026-01-30T23:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/546727\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:51:23","slug":"mike-krukow-hopes-giants-are-pursuing-pitcher-framber-valdez-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/546727\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Krukow hopes Giants are pursuing pitcher Framber Valdez \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area &#038; California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rumors surrounding the Giants and free-agent starting pitcher Framber Valdez have begun to circulate.<\/p>\n<p>Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow joined <a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/murph-markus-podcast\/krukow-on-giants-valdez-pursuit-controversy-and-buster-s-decision\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/murph-markus-podcast\/krukow-on-giants-valdez-pursuit-controversy-and-buster-s-decision\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KNBR 680&#8217;s &#8220;Murph &amp; Markus&#8221;<\/a> on Thursday and was asked about San Francisco potentially pursuing the star pitcher. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I hope so,&#8221; Krukow said. &#8220;I think he\u2019s one of the top pitchers in the game, and I like his style because he\u2019s extremely unique. High three-quarter release, big curveball &#8212; one of the best in the game &#8212; Clayton Kershaw-type curveball. He not only gets strikeouts, but he gets ground balls.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And he also has one of the best sinkers that gets lots of ground balls, and he\u2019s left-handed. I mean, what\u2019s not to like?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Signing a two-time All-Star pitcher typically is a no-brainer, but there are questions about Valdez, who had a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/joe-espada-discusses-framber-valdez-cross-up-with-cesar-salazar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">controversial cross-up incident<\/a> last season with the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n<p>In the fifth inning of the Astros\u2019 loss to the Yankees on Sept. 9, outfielder Trent Grisham hit a grand slam off Valdez, who threw a pitch even though his catcher, C\u00e9sar Salazar, motioned him to step off the rubber.<\/p>\n<p>Two pitches later, a frustrated Valdez accidentally struck Salazar in the chest protector with a sinker, which Krukow, a former MLB pitcher, had some strong thoughts on. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce you make a mistake like that, you never make it again because you realize you just made yourself the biggest hemorrhoid in baseball, and that\u2019s the last thing you want to do,&#8221; Krukow explained. <\/p>\n<p>However, the Giants broadcaster still believes the incident should not deter president of baseball operations Buster Posey and company from pursuing Valdez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an issue as you go forth with this guy,&#8221; Krukow added. &#8220;I think he atoned for it. I think he felt bad for it. He made a terrible mistake, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s gonna hurt any club from wanting this guy, and that would include the Giants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since the 2022 season, Valdez has started 121 games, posting a 3.21 ERA with 750 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>Adding the two-time All-Star to the Giants rotation would bolster a group headlined by Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Adrian Houser.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giants-talk-a-san-francisco-giants-podcast.simplecast.com\/episodes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rumors surrounding the Giants and free-agent starting pitcher Framber Valdez have begun to circulate. Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,13254,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":["post-546727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-giants","tag-baseball","tag-giants","tag-mike-krukow","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfranciscogiants","tag-sf","tag-sf-giants","tag-sfgiants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115986739232350898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546727","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=546727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}