Farewell to Merkin Valdez

The Giants today designated relief pitcher Merkin “Public Toupee” Valdez (you could look it up) for assignment to make room on their roster for Aubrey Huff.  It probably means the end of Merkin’s tenure in the Giants’ organization because he’s still young enough and throws hard enough for another team to claim.

For what seemed like years, Giants fans heard about what a great prospect Valdez was, but he never panned out.  He had a great year in the Class A Sally League in 2003 at age 21 and even reached the majors (briefly) in 2004.

Unfortunately, he blew out his elbow in 2006 and required Tommy John surgery.  When he came back in 2008, the Giants were still enamored with him, and he actually pitched really well at the start of the 2008 season, posting a 1.69 ERA in 17 relief appearances.  However, he hurt his arm again in May of that year, and missed the rest of the season.

Returning in 2009, he had nothing.  In fact, he was really the only bad pitcher in the Giants’ bullpen for most of the year.  His final line was as follows: 5.66 ERA, 48 appearances, 49.1 IP, 57 hits and 28 walks allowed and 38 Ks.  He pitched solely during garbage time, and even then he couldn’t get many hitters out.

The Giants would have sent him down, but he had been around long enough that he was out of options and would have had to be exposed to waivers.  As a result, he stayed up with the Giants and got hit hard all year long.

I saw Valdez pitch many times on TV last year, and he just never had it.  Not encouraging from a pitcher who was already 27 years old.  He throws hard, but his control was poor and his fastball didn’t show a lot of movement, which meant that it often came back hit a lot harder than it had been thrown.  It was time for the Giants to let him try his luck somewhere else.

Because he’s only 28 years old, Valdez is certainly worth a minor league contract from a team desperate for pitching (the Royals, for example), but he needs to start the season at AAA and spend a good deal of time there to establish that he really is a major league pitcher.