Left-hander Framber Valdez and the Detroit Tigers are in agreement on a three-year, $115 million contract, sources told ESPN, linking the best free agent left-hander on the market with the team looking to win its first division title in more than a decade.
The deal, which is pending a physical and contains an opt-out after the second season, came together just hours after the Tigers finished an arbitration hearing with two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Should the Tigers keep Skubal — an impending free agent who is seeking a $32 million salary, while Detroit countered at $19 million — he and Valdez would form among the most potent top-of-the-rotation combinations in baseball.
In Valdez, 32, Detroit landed one of baseball’s foremost workhorses and winningest pitchers, a late bloomer whose high-octane sinker and propensity to gobble innings made him among the most productive arms in the game over the past half-decade. While concerns about paying Valdez late into his 30s precluded him from receiving a longer-term deal, his $38.3 million salary set a record for left-handed pitchers and for pitchers from Latin America.
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