Kevin Valdez – Picture by Stephanie Lynn
Two weeks ago I released my top Cubs prospect list. Myrtle Beach pitcher Kevin Valdez made that compendium and here is what I said about him at the time: “I like this kid. Has good stuff and can move it around. Could be a big breakout guy in 24.”
Well, here we are in 2024.
Heading into the 2024 season, Valdez is an international pitcher who is the most poised to break out that a lot of people haven’t heard of. For Valdez, he is probably going to start at Myrtle Beach just because there’s a little backlog of starting pitcher right now. However, things could unclog and he could wind up at South Bend just as easily.
The Cubs signed Valdez out of the Dominican Republic in mid November 2021. He’s gone through a season and a half as a Cubs prospect and I am excited to see how he does developmentally next year. He seems to be succeeding with a mix of poise and control, despite having limited experience. He will be all of 22-years-old for all of 2024. When you begin your professional career at age 20, you almost feel like you have a late start and you are playing catch up all the time.
For Valdez, he caught up really quick thanks in part to a wicked slider.
He debuted in the Dominican in June 2022. He wound up getting a late season promotion to Mesa, and he began 2023 in the bullpen at Myrtle Beach. After an injury sidelined him for two months, he came back with a vengeance in the second half, and made six starts in August and September where he had a sub 4.00 ERA and struck out 20 in 22.1 innings. He did walk 12, but hitters have a hard time squaring up the 6-foot-4 right hander. His batting average against over the last six weeks was under .200.
His peripherals look really solid.
He struck out batters at a 16.71 per nine innings last year while walking 6.43 per nine, which needs to come down. What I like most is that he had a 52% groundball rate, which is outstanding. If you look as to why, hitters rolled over on his pitches more than 58% of the time to the pull side of the diamond. Out of the 682 pitches he threw last year, 386 (57%) were for strikes.
The hope is how he ended the season will carry over to 2024. Seven starts at Low-A is not very many. He needs that experience and he should get that in the first couple months. My hope is that Valdez can bring his poise and control to South Bend as it should play well there too. The slider won’t hurt either.
Let’s go to the video to see just exactly what he’s throwing.
