Tigers' Framber Valdez calls his ejection after HBP ‘completely unfair’

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Even in 2025, Valdez threw the four-seam fastball only five times. But when Story stepped to the plate — after Willson Contreras launched a 449-foot home run, admired his work and then tossed his bat toward the on-deck circle, and after Wilyer Abreu followed with a 396-foot blast of his own — Valdez threw, of all things, a four-seam fastball. The 94.4 mph pitch hit Story square between the shoulders. It was a pitch Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy called “weak” and one that sparked a benches-clearing melodrama in the Tigers’ 10-3 loss to Boston. “I wanted to throw the fastball because I threw it in the bullpen today,” Valdez said through an interpreter, “and that pitch just stayed up and hit him by bad luck. It wasn’t intentional or anything. Anybody can have a pitch get away from them in that situation.” With the game’s score already out of hand, Story reacted strongly. Even as home-plate umpire Adam Beck directed Story toward first base, Red Sox players leaped out of the dugout. Tigers players followed. Pitchers ran in from the bullpen. No punches were thrown. No shoving even occurred. As the two teams gathered down the first-base line for a cold confrontation, Valdez stayed back near the mound, away from the action. Umpires gathered in the aftermath, and Valdez was ejected. Benches clear in the 4th inning of the Red Sox-Tigers game in Detroit. pic.twitter.com/8CigiKH63L “I understand,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said afterward. “I understand their frustration. I understand the optics. I understand the whole thing. We play a really good brand of baseball here. That didn’t feel like it. That’s not judging intent. I have no idea. But I know when you go out on the field and you end up in those confrontations, you usually feel like you’re in your right. It didn’t feel good being out there.” Valdez left the field Tuesday having surrendered 10 runs, seven of them earned. The plunking of Story and the havoc that followed marked a low point in a chaotic week for the Tigers. With ace left-hander Tarik Skubal on the injured list and the bullpen in disarray, Valdez’s team is left picking up the pieces as he now faces the possibility of suspension and further questions about an already checkered reputation. “I (think) that it’s completely unfair,” Valdez said “First of all, they should have given me a warning. … Getting ejected, I’m not making the decision. The umpires are doing their job. They’re doing their best. They made the decision of getting me ejected. As you can see on the video, I was not even feisty. I was not even angry against them, neither the umpire, nor the team. But again, I considered that a very unfair situation that shouldn’t happen. They should have given me a warning.” For Valdez, Tuesday’s incident was the latest in a string of controversies that helped create the reputation of a pitcher who can struggle to control his emotions on the mound. Last season with the Astros, Valdez questioned his own team’s defensive positioning after a 2-1 loss. In his most high-profile dispute, Valdez hit his own catcher, César Salazar, in the chest protector after a cross-up that some viewed as intentional. The situation with Salazar and other smaller instances of Valdez reacting poorly have led to a mixed perception across the league. Despite being one of the game’s most consistent pitchers, his free-agent market this winter did not materialize as intended, leading to a three-year, $115 million deal. This latest controversy, though, brings back memories of all of the earlier ones. “I’ve been playing with him since 2018,” Valdez said of Salazar. “We always stay in contact, we have conversations, and of course, I would never do anything against any teammate of mine, wherever I am. … We have been talking since then constantly. This situation today, it was again, the ball just came out of my hand. It was not on purpose. It should not affect my reputation at all.” In the early days of his Tigers tenure, Valdez has mostly kept his head down. Before Tuesday, he had been a model of consistency on the mound and has praised his fellow Tigers. After starting the home opener, he said, “It’s important to know if something happens, say they have an error or anything, I support my teammates.” Tuesday’s blowup adds to greater concerns about this battered Tigers team. If there is any silver lining, it’s that Tuesday’s on-field situation did not escalate further. The only interesting thing that happened on the field was Hinch exchanging words with Contreras before the teams separated. “Willson was really frustrated,” Hinch said. “I was just standing there, making sure he calmed down. It was fine. Their coaches were there. I just was telling him to calm down.” Now, though, the Tigers must deal with the possibility Valdez could face a suspension. With Skubal, Casey Mize and Justin Verlander on the injured list, the Tigers were already down to only three traditional starters. Their record dipped to 18-19 after Tuesday’s loss. They are likely to operate with bullpen games and other creative measures until more of their roster returns to health. “I do not expect to get suspended,” Valdez said. “If it would have been on purpose, I would have gone towards the hitter, saying something, yelling something, threatening them or something like that, which didn’t happen. I was just calm, just staying out of the situation. I let the benches clear, and nothing happened. I even left the field in a quiet way, because, of course, it was not on purpose.” In deciding whether Valdez gets suspended, the league might make its own judgment regarding the intent of Valdez’s pitch. Tuesday evening, after most of the Tigers’ players had vacated the clubhouse, catcher Dillon Dingler emerged from the training room. Speaking with two reporters, he said he called for a fastball. Did he think Valdez intended to hit Story? “I think it got away from him,” he said. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms