Framber Valdez’s latest hot streak highlights Astros tragic mishandling of their ace

For Houston Astros fans that have watched this team at all in recent years, the news that Framber Valdez is good at baseball isn't actually news. Valdez has pretty quietly established himself as one of the better left-handed pitchers in baseball over the years and Houston has been able to reap all the benefits from it.

However, Valdez's latest shutdown start on Sunday against the Chicago Cubs was impressive even by his lofty standards. Valdez threw six scoreless innings with six strikeouts and with the win, the Astros have now won 10 straight games in which Valdez has pitched which is, frankly, pretty insane.

Unfortunately, this latest hot streak from Valdez is a reminder of how the Astros failed to extend him and what they stand to lose this offseason if/when he leaves in free agency.

Astros failure with Framber Valdez extension looms very large right now

Credit where credit is due for Valdez. Not only did he bet on himself when he rebuffed Houston's early extension attempts, but Valdez has pitched his brains out despite all of the attention on his impending departure. If one is going to end up leaving in free agency, posting a 2.72 ERA across 17 starts is a great start towards getting a massive payday.

We know that the Astros wanted to extend Valdez as some point, but it is unclear how engaged they have been lately in trying to extend him. It certainly wasn't great that the Astros entertained trading him last offseason in terms of the extension odds. Now, Valdez is likely looking to get a deal this coming offseason somewhere in the neighborhood of the deal Max Fried received from the New York Yankees (eight-year, $218 million) this past winter.

Valdez is a year older than Fried, and will make it difficult for the Astros left-hander to get the same number of years as the former Atlanta Braves standout. However, the AAV ($27.25 million) is likely to be pretty similar if not a shade better, and one wonders how much cheaper the Astros could have had him if they'd buckled down and been serious about extending him before now. With Valdez pitching so well right now, it is likely we will never find out.

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