Tigers fans reacting to Framber Valdez's cross-up situation provided funny social media moment

As much as he might deny it, Tigers fans know that Framber Valdez's infamous cross-up moment with catcher Cesar Salazar last year must have hurt his free agent market.

If you need a refresher: in September, Valdez gave up a grand slam to Trent Grisham to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead over the Astros. Two pitches later, he nailed his catcher, who had called for a curveball, with a sinker to the chest. Valdez has since said that it wasn't intentional, and that he apologized to Salazar, but the pitcher's conduct in the immediate aftermath sort of speaks to the contrary.

Brian McTaggart of MLB.com wrote at the time, "Valdez showed no immediate remorse when the pitch was thrown, and Salazar seemed shocked." They were both called into manager Joe Espada's office for a closed-door meeting in the aftermath.

After he signed with the Tigers, fans were quick to produce some excellent memes referencing the incident and only semi-seriously worrying about Dillon Dingler's wellbeing behind the dish during Valdez starts.

This one is from a Guardians fan, but we'll give it to them: it's very funny.

Fans had a little fun with Framber Valdez's 2025 cross-up incident after his signing with Tigers

Valdez was asked about the incident during his introductory press conference in Lakeland on Wednesday.

"Obviously it was a moment where I got crossed up," he said. "It was the heat of the moment. Adrenaline was going. I did my best to apologize after the fact. I was focused on the game, to get the last out. But when we got into the dugout I communicated that was my mistake. Fortunately, we still continue to be friends."

It was the dark cloud that hung over Valdez's free agency — again, whether he wants to acknowledge that or not — and it made the Tigers seem like an unlikely destination for him despite rumors. The Tigers don't like ego and, if it was intentional, hitting your catcher seems like a pretty ego-driven thing to do.

Hopefully we'll see nothing of the kind between Valdez and Dingler or Jake Rogers, who used to catch Valdez when they were coming up through the Astros' system together. It certainly doesn't seem like anything that AJ Hinch would let happen on his watch, but we should also be optimistic that Valdez learned something from that entire experience.