Astros $18M Star Ripped to Shreds for Alleged Petty Revenge on Teammate After Yankees Grand Slam

Trent Grisham crushed his second grand slam in less than a week. And Jazz Chisholm Jr. added two homers as the Yankees rolled past the Astros 7-1 on Tuesday night. The night witnessed New York was up by two in the fifth when Framber Valdez walked Paul Goldschmidt, then gave up back-to-back singles to Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge to load the bases. That set the stage for Grisham, who delivered the Yankees’ eighth grand slam of the season, his second since last Friday against the White Sox.

But despite the Yankees’ power show, the bigger buzz isn’t about their offense; it’s about the Astros, and for all the wrong reasons. Well, we have had a few bench-clearing incidents and fist-blows between the players this year. But one player is taking it out on his own teammate? No, that’s surely not so common. But here it is…

“After giving up a grand slam, tell me this sequence doesn’t look like Astros pitcher Framber Valdez purposely crosses up his catcher to nail him on purpose. He certainly didn’t look like he felt bad for doing it!” MLB analyst Jim Traeger shared a small clip that shows Valdez drilling down the Astros catcher in what seems to be intentional. Or is it?

Reportedly, Astros pitcher Framber Valdez and catcher Cesar Salazar just couldn’t get in sync during Tuesday’s loss to the Yankees. The miscommunication showed up a couple of times, and one of those moments was costly. Trent Grisham launched a grand slam after Valdez seemed ready to deliver a pitch while Salazar was waving for him to step off!

What’s more, things didn’t get any smoother in the next at-bat. Salazar set up inside, clearly looking for something offspeed, but Valdez fired a 93 mph fastball right at him. The ball drilled Salazar in the chest, and guess what, fans immediately lit up Valdez online. They’re blasting him for what looked like a pitch aimed at his own catcher. Eventually, the Astros couldn’t recover, falling 1–7 to the Yankees.

So, while the game is now over and both teams are looking for the next one, the fans have yet to let the issue between Valdez and Salazar go. Despite the official apology and unintentional claim by Valdez, fans are calling out the Astros’ pitcher for a lack of sportsmanship.

The Astros’ pitcher gets called out by the fans

The majority of the Astros fans are left stunned after what they witnessed between Valdez and Salazar. “Really bad look for Framber,” one fan said. Yes, the hit on Salazar surely looks bad enough, but fortunately, there’s no report of any injury. “Looks intentional to me,” another added. But why will Valdez do it intentionally? So, the answer lies in the fifth inning when he gave up a grand slam. Just before the pitch, the Astros’ catcher was signaling for Valdez to step off the mound, but Valdez went ahead and delivered anyway. The result? Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham launched it out of the park, and maybe Valdez took it personally. Maybe! “Everyone knows it was on purpose. His reaction said everything you needed to know:” Another fan agrees with the public narrative.

So, what could be the consequences after this? “Houston should DFA him just for that. Thats unacceptable,” one user remarked. “Don’t worry, he’ll be gone after this season,” added another. Well, Valdez looks like he’s headed for free agency, with contract talks between him and the Astros reportedly at a standstill. However, the Astros know they’ll need to put a serious offer on the table to keep him. And Spotrac projects his next deal at around six years, $204.9 million, averaging $34.2 million AAV. So while it’s very possible Valdez ends up moving on after this season, what’s almost certain is that Houston won’t be cutting ties right before the playoffs.

Now, with both Valdez and Salazar waving white flags to each other, the things might be put to rest. But when it’s baseball, you’ll surely always be ready for surprises.