Toronto Blue Jays met with free agent Framber Valdez
Photo credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
The Toronto Blue Jays met with free agent starting pitcher Framber Valdez.
The Toronto Blue Jays have been very active on the free agent market.
They signed top free agent starter Dylan Cease to a seven-year deal and also brought in Kazuma Okamoto, Tyler Rogers, and Cody Ponce.
The past few days have not gone in their favor, though. Toronto was one of the top suitors for Kyle Tucker and offered him $350MM over ten years before he signed with the Dodgers.
They also hoped to re-sign Bo Bichette, but he opted for a short-term, high-AAV deal with the Mets yesterday.
After coming up short on Tucker and Bichette, it's plausible the team could shift their focus back to adding more pitching.
Blue Jays met with Valdez at the General Manager Winter Meetings
Left-handed starter Framber Valdez remains available, and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that the Blue Jays met with him at the GM meetings back in November.
Heard something recently that adds a little context around how the Blue Jays operate atop the free agent market: they met in person with Framber Valdez at the GM Meetings before signing Dylan Cease.
Valdez has so far been publicly linked to the Orioles, Giants, Mets, and Red Sox, as for the Blue Jays, their current interest in Valdez is unclear, as is their ability to fit him into the payroll.
FanGraphs RosterResource has their 2026 payroll at $282MM and their CBT payroll at $310.5MM, which puts them over the maximum luxury tax line of $304MM.
He also rejected a qualifying offer from the Astros, so he would cost the Jays their second- and fifth-highest draft picks in 2026.
From 2022-25, he was worth 16.5 fWAR, which was fifth-best among qualified starters between Gausman and Cease.
A lot of that success has come from Valdez's suppression of home runs and exceptional groundball rates.
In those four seasons, his 0.68 HR/9 is tied for fifth-best among qualified starters. His groundball rate of 60.0% is tops among starters with at least 500 innings.
For Valdez, that number has never dipped below 54.2% in a full season, so you can see why the Blue Jays met with him.
The market has been solid for pitchers looking for long-term deals. Cease was coming off an uneven walk year with the Padres and still got seven years from the Blue Jays.
Also read on Blue Jays Central :
Toronto Blue Jays' fans anticipate Bo Bichette's return to Rogers Centre
Toronto Blue Jays' fans anticipate Bo Bichette's return to Rogers Centre
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 17|110 ANSWERS Toronto Blue Jays met with free agent Framber Valdez Do you think the Blue Jays should sign Framber Valdez? | ||
| Yes | 46 | 41.8 % |
| No | 64 | 58.2 % |
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