{"id":457435,"date":"2026-02-06T10:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/457435\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T10:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:50:09","slug":"valdez-notes-orioles-twins-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/457435\/","title":{"rendered":"Valdez Notes: Orioles, Twins, Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Framber Valdez<\/a> came off the board last night<\/a> on a three-year, $115MM deal (with deferrals) to pair with\u00a0Tarik Skubal<\/a> at the top of Detroit\u2019s rotation. Reporting in the wake of that agreement shed some light on the lefty\u2019s market before he committed to the Tigers.<\/p>\n

The Orioles had been frequently connected to Valdez throughout the offseason. They\u2019d certainly benefit from adding a top-of-the-rotation arm alongside Trevor Rogers<\/a> and\u00a0Kyle Bradish<\/a>. Baltimore president of baseball operations Mike Elias has ties to Valdez from his days in the Houston front office. Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner<\/a> and Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> each suggest that the O\u2019s are still in the rotation market and remain engaged on Zac Gallen<\/a>, who is arguably the best unsigned free agent.<\/p>\n

Like Valdez, Gallen rejected a qualifying offer and is tied to draft compensation. Baltimore would forfeit their third-round pick (#82 overall) if they signed him.\u00a0Chris Bassitt<\/a>,\u00a0Lucas Giolito<\/a>,\u00a0Justin Verlander<\/a> and\u00a0Max Scherzer<\/a> are other possibilities if the O\u2019s balk at Gallen\u2019s asking price. None of those pitchers would require a draft penalty. The O\u2019s have a projected luxury tax number of $189MM, as calculated by RosterResource<\/a>. That\u2019s about $10MM north of where they ended the \u201925 season.<\/p>\n

Although Baltimore was an obvious fit for Valdez, there were a couple more surprising entrants into the market as his free agency lingered. The Pirates reportedly made a push this week, while ESPN\u2019s Jesse Rogers<\/a> reports that the Twins were also involved. Minnesota also reportedly jumped into the mix<\/a> on Freddy Peralta<\/a> before the Brewers traded him to the Mets.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not known if they were ever serious threats to land each pitcher or simply doing their diligence on available impact arms. A Valdez signing would have been a shock. Ownership has reduced spending. The team and president of baseball operations Derek Falvey parted ways just last week in a curiously timed decision. Minnesota scuttled any plans for a rebuild after onboarding a few minority investors to alleviate some of the franchise\u2019s debts. At the same time, they\u2019ve only made modest additions (most notably Victor Caratini<\/a>,\u00a0Josh Bell<\/a> and Taylor Rogers<\/a>) to a team that lost the second-most games in the American League and decimated the bullpen with a massive deadline sale.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no indication that the Yankees were involved on Valdez at the end, but they apparently also had some amount of interest earlier in the winter. Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> writes that the Yanks reviewed the pitcher\u2019s medicals but dropped a potential pursuit after they re-signed\u00a0Cody Bellinger<\/a> to a five-year, $162MM deal. That vaulted their competitive balance tax figure around $330MM, and a second splash for Valdez seemed out of their financial zone. The Yankees acquired talented but oft-injured lefty Ryan Weathers<\/a> in a trade with Miami. Beyond that, it seems they\u2019ll rely mostly on their internal arms to hold down the rotation until Carlos Rod\u00f3n<\/a> and\u00a0Gerrit Cole<\/a> return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Framber Valdez came off the board last night on a three-year, $115MM deal (with deferrals) to pair with\u00a0Tarik…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,24973,462,82,10622],"class_list":{"0":"post-457435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-framber-valdez","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-zac-gallen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}