Oakland A's Give Cesar Valdez A Shot

November 19th the Oakland A's signed Cesar Valdez to a minor league contract. His last appearance in the major leagues was way back in 2010 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Almost 7 years ago. Since then, Valdez has been jumping from organization to organization, toiling as a journeymen reliever/starter in AAA. Not even a tweet by the organization is even needed for these type of transactions. Just a normal organizational move. But this is not just any organizational move. A closer look at Valdez' player page shows there is much more going on here than just organizational depth.

It needs to be noted that Valdez is already heading into his age thirty-two season. Whatever value the A's pull out of him needs to be extracted quickly because father time is right on his tail. The A's don't expect him to be a long-term asset. They probably don't really even expect him to make it the big leagues. His AAA numbers over the last two years suggest he should be a major leaguer again.

In 2016, Valdez posted a 3.24 FIP in the offensive-happy Pacific Coast league playing for the Astros triple-a affiliate, good for third best in the league. One could look at this and say 'okay so what, he had a good 140 innings in the minor leagues'. What jumps out of the page is how Valdez was even better pitching in the Mexican League in 2015, another offensive-happy environment. He led the league in FIP and really was not even close. He had the second highest K/9 and on top of it all he led the league in innings. He absolutely dominated the Mexican League and followed that up with another showing of dominance in the Pacific Coast League.

Valdez' walks per nine fell from 1.57 in 2015 to 0.85 in 2016. The lowest BB/9 in the PCL by almost one whole walk. There was reason to doubt Valdez following his 2015 season. It was dominant, but also could be seen as flukey. He posted an outstanding 9.02/1.57/.50 line. One could ask how he gave up so little homeruns and maybe that walk rate is bound to shoot up against stiffer competition. Valdez earns credibility with his 2016 campaign. His strikeout rate dipped a bit, although still strong, but his walk rate almost halved and he kept that outstanding homerun rate. He sustained most of his gains even against more advanced competition.

Remember the name Cesar Valdez. He will be up at some point with the Oakland A's. There is no way to predict outcomes such as Corey Kluber and Junior Guerra but Mr. Valdez is as good a bet as any to follow in their footsteps.

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