Astros finally know draft fate after Framber Valdez's stunning deal with Tigers

While it has been inevitable for some time, the Houston Astros have officially lost Framber Valdez as he signed a lucrative three-year deal with the Tigers on Wednesday evening. For the Astros, it is a massive loss from their rotation, where Valdez worked his way to becoming Houston's ace, although there were certainly some rocky times during his tenure as well. However, not all of the news around Valdez's departure is bad for the Astros.

The primary reason the Astros gave Valdez a qualifying offer was that they knew he would likely reject it, which would net them an extra draft pick once he signed elsewhere. With Valdez's deal with Detroit, we now know exactly what the Astros' 2026 MLB Draft will look like, barring something pretty wild happening.

2026 MLB Draft shaping up to be franchise-altering for the Astros after Framber Valdez's departure

For losing Valdez after giving him a qualifying offer and also being a payor of the luxury tax, the Astros get a draft pick at the end of the fourth round. While not much at first glance, a quick look at the draft bonus pool allotments from last year shows that a pick in that range will give Houston over $500,000 in extra draft bonus cash to play with in 2026.

Between the pick for losing Valdez and the one Houston received after Hunter Brown's Cy Young finish, the Astros have multiple early picks and enough bonus pool to leverage those picks into big-time talent. The last few years have seen Houston picking towards the bottom of each round in the draft and having to take whatever scraps fall to them. In this upcoming draft, the Astros are going to be able to get two first-round talents without concerns about not having enough pool space to sign them without torpedoing the rest of their draft class.

There is no denying that the Astros will miss Valdez this year. Having a guy like him around makes it really hard to ever get into a prolonged slump as a team. However, the money was just never going to work on the Astros' side ($38 million AAV is insane), and the franchise will at least get some benefit from him moving on.