After up-and-down '23, Valdez focused on consistency

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- If left-hander Framber Valdez isn’t concerned about his performance in his first Grapefruit League outing of 2024, then nobody else should be, either. The fact Valdez had a poor second half and a disastrous performance for the Astros in last year’s postseason has put the microscope on him in this year’s camp, but it’s way too early to wring any hands.

The Astros are counting on Valdez to return to his stellar form of 2021-22, when the workhorse emerged as one of the top southpaws in the game. He backed that up in the first half of last year before things went awry in the final three months of the season and the playoffs. With ace Justin Verlander behind in his spring throwing program because of a shoulder issue, a healthy and effective Valdez is of paramount importance for the Astros.

Valdez made the All-Star team in ’23 and went 12-11 with a 3.45 ERA but faltered in the second half. After going 7-6 with a 2.51 ERA in his first 17 starts, he was 5-5 with a 4.66 ERA in his final 14 starts, which included an Aug. 1 no-hitter against Cleveland. He lost all three of his playoff starts, posting a 9.00 ERA.

“It’s in the past, but obviously we’re always working just to be better than what we were last year in 2023 and try to get more consistent,” he said.

Here’s a closer look at Valdez’s wobbly final 14 starts compared his first 17 strong outings:

• He had a hard-hit rate (95+ mph exit velo) of 44.6 percent through his July 8 start and a 46.7 percent hard-hit rate the rest of the way.

• Using Statcast’s attack zones, Valdez threw more pitches across the heart of the plate during his last 14 starts (29.4 percent) than during his first 17 starts (26.9 percent).

• Valdez spoke at times last year about throwing his sinker too hard, which tended to level out the pitch. His sinker velo went from 93.9 mph in 2022 to 95.3 last year. According to Baseball Prospectus, he went from 3.0 inches of vertical movement above average in 2022 to 0.3 inches below average in 2023.

There was no available Statcast data Friday at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, where Valdez allowed seven of the 11 Nationals batters he faced in Friday’s 10-8 win over the Nationals to reach. He gave up three earned runs and five hits, including a homer, in 1 1/3 innings. Valdez said he was throwing at only 40-50 percent intensity in his first start of the spring.

“Obviously, the first outing of the spring, I can’t go out there and go 100 percent, so I think the more and more I go in the spring, the more and more I’ll raise the intensity,” he said.

Valdez said his offseason was spent on finding consistency with his secondary pitches -- curveball, changeup and cutter -- which he throws with a sinker that he uses to rank among the best groundball pitchers in the big leagues.

“I really didn’t change up much, just tried to work on my consistency and tried to find a good point of release from pitches so when I get the ball, I feel good throwing them,” he said.

The biggest adjustment Valdez will have to make this season will be throwing to a new catcher. The lefty has thrown to veteran catcher Martín Maldonado for 79.4 percent of his career innings prior to this season. Maldonado signed with the White Sox, leaving Valdez -- and teammate Cristian Javier -- among those key Houston arms having to learn to throw a new catcher in Yainer Diaz.

“The biggest thing is we’ve got to communicate and get on the same page and do things the right way for the game,” Valdez said.

With that in mind, Valdez on Friday was wearing a PitchCom device on his glove to help him communicate better with Diaz when it came to calling pitches. Valdez had immense trust in Maldonado, whose level of preparation gave him confidence in throwing any pitch. He said he plans to use the PitchCom in the regular season, too,

“It felt very good, the same as if Yainer was calling the pitches,” Valdez said. “When you have control of the game, it doesn’t really matter who’s calling -- if he’s calling or I am. The biggest thing is to try to make the right pitch at the right spot.”