During the Houston Astros series-opener against the New York Yankees, Framber Valdez was on the mound and Cesar Salazar was behind the plate. Salazar called for Valdez to step off the mound with the bases loaded, but Valdez didn't and gave up a Grand Slam.
In the next at-bat, Valdez threw a pitch that crossed up Salazar behind the plate, hitting him in the chest protector. Valdez turned around, away from Salazar, and speculation grew that Valdez crossed up Salazar intentionally.
After the incident, Valdez apologized to Salazar, and both cleared the air on the incident postgame. But there were still doubters, which led to Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle sharing comments from Valdez's agent calling those accusations "preposterous."
Valdez's Agent Calls Intentional Cross-Up Preposterous
The moment sparked debate, and while the two sides publicly cleared the air, there was still debate and speculation over whether it was intentional or not. But, as Kawahara shared, Valdez's agent, Ulises Cabrera, denied such speculation.
"The idea that he's intentionally trying to injure one of his teammates is preposterous," Cabrera said. "It's a complete lack of respect for who he is as a person and who he is as a player. And his body of work demonstrates that. Anything to the contrary is just completely misguided, and it's not right."
With plenty of speculation from various former MLB players, fans, and insiders, the comments from Valdez's agent try to paint a different picture. Trying to intentionally hurt one's own teammate would be a drastic move after giving up a Grand Slam.
While the chances that Valdez truly meant to cross up or injure Salazar seem slim, his instant reaction doesn't help that narrative from going away. Instead of expressing concern for Salazar, he turned around, away from Salazar.
But, with Valdez apologizing to Salazar in the dugout and after the game, and Salazar not calling out Valdez for the cross-up, the moment seems to be water under the bridge, despite the speculation around baseball.
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Valdez's agent also outlined what Valdez means to the Astros organization amid his defense of the left-handed pitcher, who is in a contract year. Set to hit the open market, Cabrera will try to land Valdez a big deal in the offseason.
"I think the issue here is you're talking about Framber Valdez, who's the four-time Opening Day starter for the organization that's taken the ball pretty much every single time since 2020," Cabrera said, "He's won the most games, he gives the team the most amount of quality starts. There's no questioning what Framber is and what he represents to the team and his thought process on the team."
While this moment could impact his free agency case come this Winter, the profile speaks for itself, and a team will likely be interested in the 32-year-old pitcher. Cabrera's defense calls out those who speculate it was done intentionally.
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