Framber Valdez wastes no time calling out Astros with Tigers visiting Houston

Framber Valdez is set to make his return to the mound at Minute Maid/Daikin Park on Tuesday night. His former club played a tribute video for him on Monday ahead of the Tigers' and Astros' opener, and he received a nice ovation from the relatively sparse crowd in Houston and acknowledged the crowd with the tip of his cap.

Valdez came to the Tigers after a long free agency that dragged into February, on a three-year, $115 million deal — the largest ever for a left-handed pitcher by AAV. Though Valdez insisted he had options the entire time (the Twins were allegedly in on him), it was obvious that the rather unsavory reputation he's cultivated affected his market.

Despite this, the Astros said during the offseason that they were keeping lines of communication open with Valdez.

Upon his return to Houston, Valdez immediately pushed back on that. "We didn't have any kind of negotiations. I just had talks and conversations with the teams that were interested in me, and I ended up with the Tigers. [...] (The Astros) did not make any contact with me."

Framber Valdez sets the record straight on free agency upon return to Houston with Tigers

Valdez insisted that there were no hard feelings, but not before mentioning that he "would have loved for my team of eight, nine years to want me back."

The Astros' rotation depth has been slowly picked off this year. All of Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr., Brandon Walter, Ronel Blanco, and Hayden Wesneski are on the IL, and McCullers is the only one not on the 60-day. Hunter Brown just came off of the 60-day IL on Tuesday.

Maybe they could've used having Valdez in the fold, but it's a little hard to miss him when he's been rather disappointing for the Tigers. He has a 4.40 ERA (98 ERA+) in 14 starts, is generating the lowest ground ball rate of a career built on ground balls, and has already gotten himself into trouble while in a Tigers uniform.

The Tigers stunned fans when they actually took a leap of faith and signed Valdez, the best and therefore most expensive pitcher available on the market, but now he needs to shape up and pitch like he's worth the record-breaking money he's making.

Tigers fans might not fully believe Valdez's "no hard feelings" promise, but now, he should channel that into his best start of the season against the team that let him walk.

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