Framber Valdez's blowup vs Cubs has kicked off more inane Tigers fan discourse

The responses to the Tigers' high-wire act win over the Cubs on Monday night and then the blowout they suffered on Tuesday night perfectly encapsulated the constant emotional whiplash we're dealing with these days. When Detroit's entire 2026 season may hinge on the two weeks between the All-Star break and the trade deadline, every win is better and every loss is more devastating.

When Dillon Dingler goes 4-for-5 with two homers, he's even more of a hero. When Framber Valdez can't make it through a full inning without giving up six runs and dooming the Tigers immediately, he's even more of a villain.

In his first start off the bereavement list after the death of his grandmother, Valdez immediately loaded the bases with no outs on a Pete Crow-Armstrong triple, a Seiya Suzuki walk, and an Alex Bregman hit by pitch. Carson Kelly singled two in, then Michael Busch singled one more in, then Nico Hoerner singled to load the bases again with no outs. Ian Happ singled another in before Valdez got his first two outs, but then Crow-Armstrong walked a run in.

Valdez, already at 42 pitches, was replaced by Ty Madden, who gave up another walk to add one last run to Valdez's ledger before finally getting out of the inning.

It was the worst start of Valdez's season — even one of the worst starts of his career — a season that already wasn't living up to Tigers fans' expectations, to say the least.

This outing prompted a wave of predictable but still exhausting discourse within the fanbase. "The Tigers wasted money on Framber Valdez," or "This deal is another indictment of Scott Harris' tenure," or "We're giving up on this team, time to sell at the trade deadline."

Tigers fans are exhausting themselves over ridiculous Framber Valdez argument

We are no great fans of Scott Harris here. He has made some awful decisions for the Tigers — case in point, his entire 2025 trade deadline — and have had no issue making our displeasure known.

But to criticize Harris for his decision to sign Valdez is woefully obtuse. Valdez was the best starter available on the free agent market this winter. He had a career 3.36 ERA after multiple years as an All-Star and Cy Young candidate with the Astros. The delay in his market was almost certainly not for lack of talent.

Signing Valdez was almost unanimously heralded as a victory. Tigers fans took it as a sign from the front office that they were really and truly going to go for it in their last year with Tarik Skubal as their ace.

There are many ways in which Harris did not set this team up for success. He didn't add to the offense at all and barely added to the bullpen. Those are fair criticisms.

But just this once, we'll come to Harris' defense. Signing Valdez was an objectively good move for the Tigers front office to make when they made it. We can and will be critical of how he's shaped up this year, and wish that the Tigers didn't owe him so much money, but we're not going to try to rewrite history by pretending no one was excited about his signing when it happened.

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This article was originally published on motorcitybengals.com as Framber Valdez's blowup vs Cubs has kicked off more inane Tigers fan discourse.