The fractured ring finger on Astros pitcher Framber Valdez's throwing hand could cost him the entire 2021 season, according to a report by MLB insider Jon Heyman.
The initial recommendation to the 27-year-old left-hander Valdez is for surgery to repair the fracture, and the early belief is that could mean he'd miss the 2021 season, Heyman reports.
The Astros, however, are getting more opinions on the injury before commenting further.
"We're just trying to make a decision on what we're going to do, us as a group, and what he's going to do," Astros manager Dusty Baker said Thursday afternoon.
"There's a slight fracture in that finger."
Baker said they are waiting for swelling to go down before deciding if the injury will require surgery.
Heyman notes the Astros could turn to in-house pitchers like Luis Garcia, or Forrest Whitley to replace Valdez. Heyman also suggests free agent Jake Odorizzi, whose time with the Tampa Bay Rays overlaps with that of Astros general manager James Click, could be an option for Houston.
Signing Odorizzi was also brought up Wednesday by The Athletic's Jake Kaplan. Aníbal Sánchez, Rick Porcello, Cole Hamels, Trevor Cahill and Jeff Samardzija are also free agent starters still on the market.
Valdez was expected to take on a heavy workload for the Astros this season. Last season, he led the club with 70.2 innings pitched, which ranked sixth in the American League.
It was Valdez's breakout season, albeit abbreviated, with career highs in wins (five), strikeouts (76) and a Major League-leading groundball to flyball ratio (3.56) and groundball rate (60 percent). Valdez generated 114 groundballs, the most in the AL last season.
"It's a real big deal. He was just coming into his own," Baker said. "You saw how he pitched last year, the progress that he made, how he pitched down the stretch. It's a tremendous blow. But hopefully, somebody in our system can come through for us like Framber did last year. We didn't know what we were counting on last year. We were pleasantly surprised and every spring, I'm looking for a surprise person.
"Now, I'm looking for some more."
Valdez suffered the fracture in a comeback play in his first spring outing against the New York Mets earlier this week.
"He's a little bewildered right now," Baker said, just minutes after speaking with Valdez. "Any time you're as strong as he is and it's your first injury, it's always tough. If you're going to play this game, you will have your first injury. You can count on it. We're just trying to help him through this, trying to help him make the proper decisions.
"There's some other guys here that have talked to him that have been through hand injuries. I've had four of them. I've been talking to him, we have other guys here. He has a great supporting cast here.