Free agent pitcher Framber Valdez and the Detroit Tigers have agreed to a $115 million, three-year contract, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday night.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced.
Valdez became one of baseball’s most durable starters with the Houston Astros. Now, the left-hander is set to join a Tigers rotation anchored by two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
Skubal went to a record-setting salary arbitration hearing Wednesday, with the left-hander asking for $32 million and the Tigers offering $19 million.
Valdez is a two-time All-Star and 2022 World Series champion. He was Houston's ace last season with a 13-11 record and 3.66 ERA, and became a free agent for the first time.
He struck out 187 and walked 68 in 192 innings, and had a major league-high 12 wild pitches while making $18 million on a deal reached last offseason that avoided salary arbitration. He started Houston’s last four season openers.
Since making his major league debut in 2018 with the Astros, he is 81-52 with a 3.36 ERA. The 32-year-old Dominican averaged more than 191 innings the past four seasons, joining Giants right-hander Logan Webb as the only two pitchers to throw at least 175 innings each of those years.
Valdez was 15-7 with a 2.91 ERA over 28 games in 2024 and threw a no-hitter in 2023, when he was an All-Star for a second straight season. He is 8-4 with a 4.34 ERA in 17 postseason games, including 16 starts.
Valdez pitched in two World Series for the Astros, and was the winning pitcher in the clinching Game 6 that secured their 2022 championship against Philadelphia.
In the 2022 Series, he was 2-0 in two starts while allowing two runs over 12 1/3 innings (1.46 ERA) with 18 strikeouts. A year earlier, he gave up 10 runs and 12 hits over 4 2/3 innings (19.29 ERA) in two starts against Atlanta.
Valdez rejected a $22,025,000 qualifying offer from the Astros in November, so they would receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round of the 2026 amateur draft if he completes his deal with Detroit, which would forfeit its third-highest selection.
Valdez pitched a no-hitter against Cleveland on Aug. 1, 2023. He came close to another one just more than a year later against Texas, but that bid was broken up when Corey Seager homered with two outs in the ninth inning.
There was a strange moment last season when Valdez denied intentionally hitting his catcher in the chest with a pitch almost immediately after giving up a grand slam in a loss to the New York Yankees.
Two pitches after Trent Grisham’s slam in the Yankees’ 7-1 victory on Sept. 2, Valdez crossed up catcher César Salazar by throwing a 92.8 mph sinker to Anthony Volpe. Salazar moved his glove downward as the pitch approached the plate, an indication he was expecting a pitch with less velocity and more break. The ball hit him in his chest protector.
Just before the pitch Grisham sent over the fence, Salazar had motioned for Valdez to step off the mound. Valdez and Salazar both said after the game the pitch that hit the catcher wasn’t on purpose.
Astros manager Joe Espada insisted a day later the situation was “100%” resolved in his mind, and he wanted to “get past this and get back to baseball," and he met with both players.
AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez throws to an Athletics batter during the third inning of a baseball game Sept. 25, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Scott Marshall, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state shelved a paperwork process that didn’t require going to court and decided gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
