Eduardo Valencia
Venezuelan baseball player (born 2000)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eduardo Andres Valencia (born January 25, 2000) is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher and first baseman for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
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| Eduardo Valencia | |
|---|---|
Valencia with the Toledo Mud Hens in 2025 | |
| Detroit Tigers – No. 32 | |
| Catcher / First baseman | |
| Born: January 25, 2000 Valencia, Venezuela | |
Bats: Right Throws: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| July 9, 2026, for the Detroit Tigers | |
| MLB statistics (through August 9, 2026) | |
| Batting average | .390 |
| Home runs | 4 |
| Runs batted in | 13 |
| Stats at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
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Career
Valencia signed with the Detroit Tigers as an international free agent in April 2018.[1]
In 2025, Valencia made 103 appearances split between the Double-A Erie SeaWolves and Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, batting a combined .311/.382/.559 with 24 home runs and 95 RBI. On November 18, 2025, the Tigers added Valencia to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.[2]
Valencia was optioned to Triple-A Toledo to begin the 2026 season.[3] On July 9, 2026, he was called up to give the Tigers an extra catcher while Dillon Dingler recovered from a badly bruised thumb. He made his Major League debut that night as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning, where he hit a home run in his first at-bat. He is the tenth Tiger to hit a home run in his first MLB at-bat, but only the second to do so in a pinch hitting role, following Gates Brown in 1963.[4][5]