Framber Valdez at center of another beanball controversy as benches clear
Bob NightengaleJust when the Detroit Tigers needed someone to step up and be a presence in a sea of calamity, someone to throw them a life raft, someone to make them feel like their world isn’t collapsing around them, along comes Framber Valdez acting like a human Titanic.
Valdez is the Tigers’ new ace, their highest-paid player, the one the Tigers desperately are relying on to keep their postseason hopes alive until Tarik Skubal returns to the mound later this summer.
And on Tuesday evening, he melted down for the entire Tigers’ franchise to see, reminding everyone of the ugly warts in this talented left-handed pitcher.
Valdez’s selfish act of immaturity was so outrageous in the Tigers’ 10-3 shellacking to the Boston Red Sox that when he intentionally hit Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story with a 94.4 mph fastball in the middle of his back during his latest temper tantrum, even his own manager couldn’t stand up for him.
“We play a really good brand of baseball here,’’ Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said in his press conference after the game. “That doesn't feel like it. That's not judging intent. I have no idea.
“But when you go out on the field and end up in those confrontations, you usually feel like you're in your right.
“It didn't feel good being out there."
In other words, how are you going to actually fight for your own teammate when you feel like punching him yourself?
“I understand," Hinch said. "I understand their (Red Sox) frustration and the optics. I understand the whole thing.’’
Valdez, who gave up nine hits and 10 runs runs (seven earned) in just three innings, insisted with a straight face that he wasn’t deliberately trying to hit Story after giving up back-to-back homers, saying the pitch simply got away from him, and there’s no way he deserved to be ejected.
“Not at all," Valdez said through interpreter Carlos Guillen. “It was not on purpose. It might've looked like that but it wasn't. I was trying to throw a strike after two consecutive home runs, and the pitch just came out of my hand.
“It wasn't on purpose.’’
Oh, of course not.
There is no chance that this same man who drilled his own teammate in the chest with a fastball last season with the Houston Astros would now intentionally hit an opponent.
No way, right?
Right?
Anyone else believe him?
Yes, just in case anyone forgot, this is the same guy who was so angry after giving up a grand slam to New York Yankees center fielder Trent Grisham last September, that he crossed up teammate and catcher Cesar Salazar by throwing a 92.8 mph sinker that slammed into his chest protector. Instead of apologizing, Valdez turned his back in disgust.
Valdez, summoned into Astros manager Joe Espada’s office after the game, told reporters it was simply miscommunication.
And you wonder why he was still on the free-agent market a week before spring training, signing a three-year, $115 million contract when he was expected to receive a deal close to free-agent starter Dylan Cease’s six-year, $210 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays?
Now, with the Tigers badly needing an influx of help, with three members of their opening-day starting rotation and 14 players on the injured list, they are about to be playing one man short.
Valdez, 2-2 with a 4.57 ERA, surely will be suspended at least five days for his actions that should be announced Wednesday.
“I do not expect to get suspended,’’ said Valdez, who chose that moment to throw his first four-seam fastball of the season.
Maybe he should look around the room, and see if there’s a soul in the Tigers’ clubhouse that feels the same.
If you gave them a lie detector test, they’d probably all come to the same conclusion as Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy.
“I thought it was weak and I thought everybody saw it,’’ Tracy told reporters. “Their side, our side, I think everybody saw it. It was weak.”
Really, once Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu opened the fourth inning by hitting mammoth home runs off Valdez, with Contreras flipping his bat after his 449-foot shot, Story could sense it was coming.
“I was in there ready to hit,’’ Story said, “and it showed up way behind me, off the numbers. I think we all know what’s what ... it’s pretty indisputable.’’
Story glared toward Valdez after being hit, players poured out of the dugouts, but there were no punches thrown or even shoves. Why fight when everyone is in full agreement of what happened?
“We handled it,” Story said. “We said what we said on the field, and I think that’s where it stays.”
Now, Michael Hill, senior vice president of on-field operations for MLB, will have his say.
And, perhaps behind closed doors in a meeting with Valdez, Hinch will have plenty to say, too.