Astros insider throws cold water on any hopes of Framber Valdez extension

With Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker no longer with the Houston Astros, Framber Valdez's long-term future with the organization is now the elephant in the room. Since Dana Brown's tenure began, it's been clear that Houston wanted to extend Valdez. However, there's been zero movement towards a deal, and with every passing day, the odds of an extension goes down significantly.

Today is no different. The Athletic's Chandler Rome was recently asked during a Q&A (subscription required) about the current odds that the Astros will re-sign Valdez to a contract extension. To say that Rome was pessimistic about Valdez's chances of staying in Houston would be an understatement.

Astros beat writer calls Framber Valdez contract extension "not likely" and it is hard to argue

There have already been a lot of headwinds to any sort of Valdez extension for a while now. Even before the season started, projections for Valdez's next contract seemed to be way outside the Astros' comfort zone. It was also rather telling that fans hadn't heard much at all about an extension. Valdez was also briefly dangeld the trade market last offseason before Houston pulled him off the table after dealing Tucker to the Chicago Cubs.

Rome's update on the chances of an extension are still rather grim. Apparently the team didn't approach Valdez with an extension offer last offseason and with notion that Astros' owner Jim Crane hates expensive long-term deals, their offer would probably fall short of Valdez's expectations. Rome also mentioned that Valdez's camp would likely use Max Fried's $218 million deal with the New York Yankees as the baseline for his deal. If that is the case, Houston is almost definitely out.

Again, this shouldn't be much of shock to Astros fans. Houston was willing to let a franchise icon (Bregman) walk when his contract demands got too high, and traded Tucker when it became apparent that they couldn't afford to keep him. Things could change that might make a contract extension for Valdez possible, but all signs currently point to the left-hander leaving at the end of the season if not the trade deadline.

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