Framber Valdez (Houston Astros), who contributed greatly to last year’s World Series (WS) victory, decided not to participate in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The power of the Dominican Republic is getting weaker.
The US ‘Houston Chronicle’ reported on the 9th (Korean time), “Houston Astros Framber Valdez is absent from the WBC.”
Valdez made his big league debut in 2018 and started to stand out by recording 4 wins and 1 loss with a 2.19 ERA in 8 games (5 starts). It was a little sluggish in 2019, the second year season, but it revived with an average ERA of 3.57 with 5 wins and 3 losses in 11 games (10 starts) in the 2020 season. One spot was perfectly stitched.
Career high was last year. Valdez played 201⅓ innings in 31 games, setting the record for 25 consecutive quality starts (less than 3 earned runs in 6 innings), the most in a single season in the major leagues. And he went 17-6 with a 2.82 earned run average, including three complete games. Valdez was selected as an All-Star for the first time in his career and experienced the joy of lifting the World Series championship trophy.
“Valdez really wanted to pitch for the varsity team, but we discouraged him from pitching,” general manager Dana Brown explained, according to the Houston Chronicle. The biggest reason for suggesting Valdez not attend is that he pitched 201⅓ innings last year. 메이저놀이터
Valdez never exceeded 100 innings in the first three seasons of his debut. His first 100+ innings pitched was the 2021 season, where he stayed at 134⅔ innings pitched. But last year he threw 201⅓ innings, the most innings pitched by any American League pitcher.
Valdez’s absence from the WBC does not appear to be a unilateral coercion from the Houston team. Valdez also expressed concerns about competing in the WBC last year after suddenly pitching a lot of innings.
With Valdez absent, the Dominican Republic’s power is noticeably weakening. Among the players included in the Dominican 50 reserve list, Luis Castillo (Seattle Mariners), Luis Sevirino (New York Yankees), and Valdez have declared their absence from the WBC.