The Guardians announced they’ve brought back former top outfield prospect George Valera on a minor league deal. He’ll get an invite to big league Spring Training as a non-roster player.
Valera, 24, was a notable international amateur signee back in 2017. He raked in the low minors and got to Double-A at age 20. Valera’s offensive promise made him one of Cleveland’s most touted minor leaguers. He landed in the back half of Baseball America’s overall Top 100 prospects entering both 2022 and ’23. The Guardians made the easy call to put him on the 40-man roster after the ’21 season rather than expose him to the Rule 5 draft.
The left-handed hitter’s stock has dropped significantly over the past couple years. While Valera had an impressive age-21 season at Double-A, he hasn’t carried that over to the top minor league level. Over parts of three seasons with Triple-A Columbus, he owns a middling .229/.336/.424 batting line. He has walked at a strong 13.5% clip but gone down on strikes in 26.7% of his 865 Triple-A plate appearances.
A litany of injuries hasn’t done him any favors. Valera has missed time with hamstring issues and underwent surgery to repair a hamate fracture in his right hand over the 2022-23 offseason. His ’24 campaign was cut short in September, as he injured his right knee and required patellar tendon surgery. That came with at least a six-month recovery timeline, so his availability for Spring Training games is in question.
Cleveland no longer felt they could carry that profile on their 40-man roster. They designated Valera for assignment last week as they added four players to the roster to ensure they wouldn’t lose them in the Rule 5 draft. The non-tender deadline allowed the Guards to cut Valera loose without putting him on waivers. He had a few days to gauge the market but seemingly didn’t find any team springing to offer him a 40-man spot. Valera returns to the only organization he’s known but will need to play his way back onto the roster as he tries to reach the majors.
How was he an international signing when he was born in Queens, NY, if his info in BBRef is correct?
He moved to the Dominican Republic with his family when he was 13 years old and lived and grew up there ever since.
Interesting. So I guess a U.S. citizen can be an international signing if he is living overseas at the time?
Baseball – He moved to the D.R. when he was 13.
George Valera for Jared Jones, who says no?
Pirates.
If the Pirates wanted him, they could have signed him after Cleveland cut him loose.
I doubt they were waiting for him to re-sign just so they could sent a piece of their rotation to Cleveland for fun.
Nah pirates are dumb they would do this trade 100%