As I was saying yesterday about Chris Smith (Oakland version), the career minor-league pitcher is part of the bedrock of major league baseball. Without the system of minor leagues, there would be no way for teams to develop the raw talent that they sign and bring it along to the point where it can be effective in the major leagues.
As an aside, it’s an interesting reflection on MLB that it’s really the only professional sport where most players who have excelled in high school or college still need to put in a long apprenticeship after their school days before being ready to play in the majors. Baseball is absolutely not a sport where players can take the “one and done” route that they can, for example, in professional basketball.
Since nearly forty per cent of the roster of any minor league baseball team is comprised of pitchers, and since it’s obvious by the sheer numbers involved that most of those pitchers will never see the majors, it takes a lot of guys who dream of the majors, or just love the game, to keep the system going. Without them how would the Vladi Guerrero Juniors and the Bo Bichettes hone their talents?
That’s why you just have to shake your head in wonder when you look at the career records of a guy like Chris Smith (Oakland version) or Cesar Valdez, tonight’s starter for the Blue Jays against Oakland.
There’s a certain symmetry in the fact that Valdez was making his first start for Toronto against the Athletics, who exposed him to waivers in early May only to have Toronto claim him and send him to Buffalo. But what a twisted path he took to get to the mound in the TV Dome at 7:07 tonight.
Originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Diamondbacks in 2005, he worked his way up through the Arizona organization until he got a look with them in 2010, appearing in nine games, getting two starts, and amassing a 1-2 record with an unenviable ERA of 7.65. The D-Backs sent him to Pittsburgh as the proverbial “player to be named later” at the end of the year, and thus his odyssey started. In July of 2011 the Marlins purchased him from the Pirates, and later that same month he spent two days as a possession of the Blue Jays, who released him almost immediately after acquiring him.
Then the trail leaves American professional baseball. In 2012 and 2013 he pitched in the Mexican League. In 2014 he was “out of baseball” and in 2015 he returned to the Mexican League. In January of 2016 the Astros signed him and assigned him to Triple A Fresno, where he pitched the entire year and led the Pacific Coast League in winning percentage, and was third in ERA. Nevertheless the Astros released him in November of last year. The A’s signed him to a Triple A contract , but then let him go on waivers to Toronto in May. By this time, of course, the Jays were already suffering from rotation injuries and in need of shoring up the starting pitching at Buffalo to provide backup for the major league rotation.
When you spend that long in the minors, like Chris Smith (Oakland version) you build a record that would earn significant respect as a major league pitcher, but of course it goes under the radar. Valdez has appeared in 252 games in the minors, 193 of them starts. He’s won 82, lost 62, and has a career minor league ERA of 3.86. There is no measure by which, at the age of 32, he has not earned a shot at pitching regularly in the big leagues.
Valdez has had four relief appearances with Toronto this season, moving up and down from Buffalo, where he has been starting. With the major league team he has been called on to fill the role that was served by Mike Bolsinger before he went on the DL: to start when needed, and otherwise be ready to do long relief. His best outing to date was on July nineteenth at Boston, when he picked up Aaron Sanchez after a short outing and went four innings and gave up one hit while striking out five. After that appearance, it seemed obvious that Valdez would be next up to fill a hole in Toronto’s rotation.
His mound opponent for the night was Sonny Gray, who once again, like last year at the trade deadline, has found himself auditioning for a prime time position with a playoff contender, as trade rumours swirl around his head. With a record of 6-4 and an ERA of 3.66, in 92 innings pitched going into tonight’s game, it’s easy to understand why he would represent significant capital to the Oakland franchise. They never completed a deal for him last year, but this year could easily be a different story.
Valdez had an unusual first inning, to say the least. Matt Joyce singled to left on the first pitch of the game. Marcus Semien ostensibly hit into a double play started by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on the third pitch of the game, but the Athletics appealed the play at first and the out call was overturned. Yonder Alonso hit into a real double play on the fourth pitch of the game, grounding the ball to Justin Smoak, who took the out at first and then threw down to second for the tag on Semien. An over-turned double play, a real double play, and four pitches.
Gray took the more conventional route in the bottom of the first, fanning Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson, around a Russell Martin groundout, on thirteen pitches.
Valdez came out in the second and fanned cleanup hitter Khris Davis, and retired the next two batters on ground balls. After two his pitch count had ballooned to a grand total of fifteen.
What looked like it was going to be a tight pitchers’ duel cracked open in the bottom of the second, and it was Gray himself who supplied the hammer blow, making a crucial and unnecessary error that opened the way for Toronto to score the only four runs they would need to salt this game away in the win column for Cesar Valdez.
It started innecently enough, with the first Toronto hit of the game, a sharp line single to right by Smoak. Kendrys Morales followed by dubbing an slow bouncer between the pitcher and first baseman Yonder Alonso. Gray fielded it, and had an easy play to first for the out on the leadfooted Morales. Though it was definitely not a double-play ball, Gray was over-anxious, and rushed a throw to second to try for the force. The throw sailed on him, and ended up in short left field. Morales was safe at first, and Smoak was able to get up and advance to third.
Instead of one out and a man on second, Gray now had no outs and runners on first and third. Tulowitzki then hit a soft bouncer to third that Escobar had to charge and throw to first while Smoak scored and Morales moved up to second. This would have been the second out, if not for the bad throw by Gray. Zeke Carrera hit an infield single, moving Morales to third. Gray then wild-pitched Carrera to second while Morales held third. Kevin Pillar struck out, which should have ended the inning, but didn’t.
Ryan Goins, doing his two-out, runners in scoring position magic thing again, then stroked a two-run double the opposite way to left to score both runners. When Jose Bautista hit a drive to the right-field corner that bounced out, Goins trotted in and the Jays had four big ones on the board.
The question was how would Cesar Valdez deal with such largesse? The answer was very well. He walked Mark Chapman in the top of the third, but got a double-play ball from catcher Bruce Maxwell, his second (or third, depending how you’re counting) and fanned Rajai Davis, pushing his pitch count to an extravagant 29 for three innings.
Gray avoided another bullet of his own making in the top of the third. After Donaldson worked him for a walk, the A’s blew a double play in a wierd way. Smoak grounded one to second, second baseman Jed Lowrie tossed it to third baseman Chapman, who had the coverage at second in the shift, and Chapman tossed it on to first in plenty of time to retire Smoak. Except for one thing. The video replay showed that Chapman had come off the bag while making the pivot, and Donaldson was ruled safe. Then Gray wild-pitched him to third, where he stayed, courtesy of a walk, botched forceout, and wild pitch, while Gray fanned Morales and retire Tulowitzki on a grounder to short to keep the Jays at bay.
Valdez gave up his only run in the Athleitcs’ fourth. Joyce led off with a double, his second hit, and Oakland’s second hit of the game. Semien hit a vicious liner back to Valdez which deflected off him. He calmly pounced on the ball and threw Semien out at first while Joyce held his ground. He remained at second when Yonder Alonso lined out to centre for the second out, but scored on Khris Davis’ double to left. Valdez stranded Davis when he got Lowrie to ground out to second.
That made it 4-1 Toronto, and that’s how it stayed. Valdez retired the side in the fifth, gave up a two-out single to Semien in the sixth and then balked him to third before fanning Alonso, and gave up a leadoff double to left by Davis in the seventh that brought his first Toronto start to an end, with a line of six innings pitched plus one batter, one earned run on five hits with one walk, and four strikeouts on only 77 pitches. Joe Smith needed some help from Bautista to keep Valdez’ runner Davis from scoring, as the first batter he faced, Jed Lowrie, laced one into the alley in right centre, but Bautista caught up to it, barely, snatching the ball out of the air when it was already past him. Eventually, Smith struck out Chapman with Davis on third to end the inning.
Gray finished strong for Oakland. He allowed three baserunners over the last four innings he worked after the sketchy second. Only the Donaldson walk in the third advanced past first base; a walk to Donaldson, again, in the fifth, and a one-out single by Tulowitzki in the sixth never advanced to second.
Sonny Gray’s line was 6 innings pitched, no earned runs, five hits, two walks, nine strikeouts and 103 pitches. For the scouts of all the playoff contenders hunkering together in the stands it was a pretty good showing, as long as a team that’s interested in him is prepared to have him do a little remedial PFP (pitchers’ fielding practice; they do tons of it in spring training and it’s universally hated.)
After Gray, the A’s used former Jay Liam Hendriks for an inning, and he gave up two walks but struck out 2, and Simon Castro, who hit Morales and gave up a single to Tulowitzki leading off the Jays’ eighth, then just served up the ball while Toronto blundered its way out of the inning, Carrera bunting into a fielder’s choice at third and Tulowitzki wandering off second on Pillar’s short fly to centre and getting himself doubled off.
As for the Jays, the reliable Ryan Tepera walked one but benefitted from a good fielding play of his own, and one by Smoak at first to get out of the eighth, and Roberto Osuna picked up his twenty-sixth save. After Yonder Alonso hit a single opposite the shift, he shut down the A’s with one strikeout, and watched Donaldson make a fine grab toward the line off Healy to save a double and end the game.
Let’s circle back to our initial topic and consider Cesar Valdez once again, this time from the perspective of tonight’s performance. He was in charge the whole way, pitched economically, and fulfilled the primary mission of a spot starter, to pitch multiple innings effectively, to keep his team in the game and to give the weary arms in his bullpen a break.
When John Gibbons removed Cesar Valdez from the game tonight after he gave up the leadoff double to Khris Davis in the top of the seventh, he received a huge ovation from the crowd of nearly 41,000 Toronto fans filling the TV Dome. It’s impossible for us to imagine how he must have felt as he walked off the mound to the dugout bathed in that adulation.
Were all those years of apprenticeship worth this one moment in the spotlight? Only Cesar Valdez can say, but I have no doubt that he’d rather think about his next start for Toronto, which he has surely earned.
To conclude, think of this: Cesar Valdez’ first major league win came on May 3, 2010, when he pitched five innings for the win in Houston against the Astros. His second win came tonight in Toronto against the Oakland Athletics. On July 25, 2017.
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