Players · V · C · 2026
Eduardo Valencia
- Age
- 26
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 1"
- Weight
- 180 lb
- Number
- #32
- Born
- January 25, 2000 in Valencia, Venezuela
- MLB debut
- July 9, 2026
- dbWAR
- 1.6 1 season(s)
- PA
- 129
- AVG
- .350
- OBP
- .391
- SLG
- .617
- wRC+
- 182 100 = avg
Eduardo Valencia is a catcher for the Detroit Tigers. So far in 2026 he has hit 6 home runs and knocked in 18 RBIs, notching 42 hits across 129 plate appearances in 39 games. His batting average is .350, 43.5% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .391 clip and slugged .617, for an OPS of 1.007, 40.2% higher than the league mark of .719 — the best on his team, and the second best among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.3 mph off the bat, hit 47.3% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 13.2% of them and made contact on 73.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 182 wRC+ puts his offence 82% above average. That comes to 1.6 dbWAR — +12.0 runs with the bat, +0.2 for the ballpark, -0.2 on the bases, -0.7 on double plays, +0.3 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +15.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | DET | 39 | 129 | 42 | 6 | 18 | 0 | 6 | 29 | .350 | .391 | .617 | .267 | .424 | 4.7% | 22.5% | .431 | +12.0 | 182 | 1.6 | — |
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 56 | 54 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 20 | .315 | .339 | .667 | .423 | 35.7% |
| vs RHP | 73 | 66 | 25 | 2 | 5 | 9 | .379 | .431 | .576 | .437 | 12.3% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 91 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 91 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 13.2% 12 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 89.3 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 112.4 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 47.3% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 48.4% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 14.0° average
A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Eduardo Valencia hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 129 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .350 | .391 | .617 | .431 |
| Bases empty | 66 | 60 | 22 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 | .367 | .415 | .750 | .490 |
| Runner on first | 30 | 28 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | .321 | .367 | .429 | .353 |
| Runners on | 63 | 60 | 20 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 15 | .333 | .365 | .483 | .371 |
| RISP | 33 | 32 | 11 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 7 | .344 | .364 | .531 | .387 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Head to head
Put Eduardo Valencia beside up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.