If you slept through the Winter Meetings, let’s start by wishing you feel better. We’ve all been there when we’ve been sick when December hits, forcing us to miss moves like Pete Alonso signing with the Baltimore Orioles and Edwin Díaz becoming the latest All-Star to join the Los Angeles Dodgers.
However, plenty of the premier free agents remain unsigned, including veteran Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez. There have been no credible reports about the 32-year-old Valdez moving closer to putting pen to paper, whether it’s with the Astros or another team entirely. What contenders wouldn’t want a starting pitcher who has averaged 180 innings and a 3.20 ERA since the start of 2021?
With that said, we’re also getting increasingly skeptical that Valdez might want the long-term contract that he likely desires. If he’s willing to listen, then we have an idea worth considering that could help Valdez’s chances of cashing in.
Rather than being desperate, Framber Valdez should follow in Pete Alonso’s footsteps
Admittedly, comparing a 31-year-old starting pitcher to a perennial All-Star first baseman is unfair, at least at face value. However, let’s look deeper into the context surrounding Valdez’s free agency and Alonso’s time on the open market last winter. Alonso wanted a long-term deal entering his age-30 season, and no teams budged. He wound up signing a two-year, $54 million deal with the Mets, a contract that allowed him to opt out after the first season.
Then, look what happened. Alonso finished 2025 with a .272 average (his highest since 2022), 38 home runs, 126 RBIs, 41 doubles, and an .871 OPS. Even if his 3.4 bWAR doesn’t immediately jump off the page, anyone who saw Alonso play this past season — even Phillies and Braves fans — will agree that he lived up to expectations. Alonso understandably opted out, and he parlayed his gambling on himself into a five-year, $155 million contract with the Orioles.
Whether or not Alonso succeeds in Baltimore is irrelevant here. The Orioles saw enough in Alonso that they felt comfortable handing him a five-year contract. What’s stopping a contender, maybe someone like the Mets or Yankees, from doing something similar with Valdez? And if we were Valdez, we would absolutely be open to signing such a contract.
If Valdez took that route, though, he needs to sign a two-year deal with a player option rather than a one-year, prove-it contract. If Valdez suffered a serious injury, such as an elbow problem that would require Tommy John surgery, he could accept the 2027 option and ensure that he gets paid rather than re-entering the free agent market. There’s also the possibility of a 2027 lockout, and while Valdez wouldn’t be paid during a work stoppage, he’d at least guarantee that he’s set for whenever the lockout would end.
Framber Valdez's 3Ks in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/bUjPNi2RHG
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 25, 2025
Personally, I’d much rather have Valdez than Dylan Cease, who signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this month. Although Cease is two years younger than Valdez, the risks of signing a pitcher to a contract exceeding four years are massive. All it takes is one injury for said pitcher to lose their effectiveness, and then you’re stuck with them. The Washington Nationals experienced it firsthand with Stephen Strasburg, and the Arizona Diamondbacks are certainly regretting Eduardo Rodríguez’s four-year, $80 million contract, which also includes a 2028 mutual option.
Sometimes, the safer play is a short-term, low-risk, high-reward contract. Valdez might not break the bank, but he’d be better off settling and making his money where he can.