{"id":553933,"date":"2026-02-04T08:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/553933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:51:15","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-among-teams-eyeing-starter-framber-valdez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/553933\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays among teams eyeing starter Framber Valdez"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> are among several teams that have shown interest in free agent left-hander Framber Valdez<\/a>, according to Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post.<\/p>\n

Widely considered the best free agent remaining on the market, Valdez and free agent right-hander Zac Gallen<\/a> are the only two players left on the open market that declined the $22.05 million qualifying offer earlier this off-season. <\/p>\n

The 32-year-old has been solid for the Houston Astros<\/a> in recent years, going 13-11 with a 3.66 ERA in 31 starts a season ago. He also struck out 187 batters in 192.0 innings pitched. <\/p>\n

Since he began pitching out of the rotation full-time in 2020, Valdez has a 3.23 ERA with two All-Star appearances. He also helped the Astros win a World Series title in 2022, turning in a 1.46 ERA in two Fall Classic starts in Houston\u2019s six-game victory over the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An eight-year big-league veteran, Valdez owns a career 3.36 ERA in 188 regular-season appearances.<\/p>\n

The Jays have been busy this winter, particularly on the starting pitching side, headlined by the signing of righty Dylan Cease<\/a> to a seven-year, $210 million deal. Toronto also signed right-hander Cody Ponce to a three-year, $30 million contract and had Shane Bieber<\/a> opt into a $16 million player option. <\/p>\n

As things currently stand, the Jays have starters Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Trey Yesavage<\/a>, Jose Berrios<\/a>, Cease, Bieber and Ponce under contract for this coming season. Eric Lauer<\/a> and Bowden Francis<\/a> — who combined to make 29 starts last season — are also under contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays are among several teams that have shown interest in free agent left-hander Framber Valdez,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[30173,5,72930,4,46737],"class_list":{"0":"post-553933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-framber-valdez-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-873146","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116011511797674515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553933","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=553933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}