Houston Astros' pitcher Framber Valdez will be a free agent at the end of the season, and he'll be one of, if not the best, starting pitchers on the market. However, on Tuesday night Valdez was involved in an incident that could cost him in the offseason.
Valdez was on the mound for the Astros against the New York Yankees and found himself in a bases loaded jam with two outs and his team down 2-0 in the fifth inning. The Astros' catcher, César Salazar, appeared to signal to Valdez to step off the mound before delivering the next pitch, but Valdez didn't.
That pitch was hit over the left field wall into the Crawford Boxes for a grand slam. Then, on the second pitch of the next at-bat, Valdez and his catcher got crossed up and Valdez nailed Salazar in the chest with a fastball. However, there's speculation of whether it was intentional or not.
Will the Cross-Up Incident Affect Valdez's Free Agency?
On Wednesday morning, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal joined Foul Territory to discuss the incident, and how it could affect the Astros' starter after this season.
"He is one of the top free agents available this off season, and certainly he was looking for a contract, is looking for a contract in the Max Fried range, right? Now, I don't know if he'll get there. He's older, whatever. But if I'm a team, I'm asking him these questions," Rosenthal said. "I'm wanting to know in my interview process with him, 'Hey, what is going on there? What is going on in some of these other incidents with catchers over the years? And if I'm going to give you X number of 100 million dollars, can I trust you?'
"And I want to look him in the eye and get answers to those questions. They are certainly valid questions. But when you ask me if I think it's going to cost him, I'm not sure, because talent weighs out so big in free agency."
There’s speculation that Astros pitcher Framber Valdez purposely crossed up his catcher Cesar Salazar and hit him with this pitch after Salazar told him to step off before allowing a grand slam pic.twitter.com/ds3c9MzQV6
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 3, 2025
Rosenthal mentioned Max Fried's contract as a comparison for what Valdez could be eyeing. The Yankees signed Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract this offseason.
However, that's a lot of money to give to a player to build your team around if there's a trust barrier. At the same time, Valdez has a proven, impressive track record that may out-weigh the doubts in trust.
The Astros' starter is a two-time All-Star and World Series champion with a career 3.32 ERA. Valdez has also finished Top 10 in Cy Young voting three times. He also has a history of being emotional on the mound, and the key may be finding a way to control that emotion.
Framber Valdez spoke with reporters after tonight's game and said he did not intentionally hit César Salazar
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) September 3, 2025
via @WillKunkelV pic.twitter.com/6sBwwSnvfj
"Teams take chances and invest in players all the time who have checkered pasts, something that they've done, emotional questions. This happens commonly. It's not unusual," Rosenthal said. "So, Framber Valdez is one of the better pitchers in the game, quite obviously, we all know that, and he's done it for a long time and done it an extremely high level.
"I expect he's still going to do well, but I darn sure want to know the answers to those questions if I'm a general manager, owner, manager, whoever, because that can't happen on my team, put it that way."
Both Valdez and Salazar have said the incident was a cross-up. However, there's many that believe that wasn't the case. Whether you watch the body language and tone of the two athletes and form a different opinion or not, it's all assumption at this point.
But one thing is for sure, the incident will make this offseason a little more complex for Valdez as he searches for his first big contract extension.