Fernando Valenzuela

Did You Know?

• Valenzuela was the youngest of 12 children born to poor farmers of Mayo indigenous ancestry in Etchohuaquila, Sonora.
• He became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 2015, and was later appointed a special ambassador for citizenship and naturalization by President Barack Obama.
• Valenzuela purchased the Mexican League team Tigres de Quintana Roo in 2017.

Playing career

Valenzuela began his professional career in 1977 with the Mayos de Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific League. The following year he pitched for the Guanajuato Tuzos of the Mexican Central League, posting a 5–6 record with a 2.23 ERA. When the Mexican Central League was absorbed into the expanded Mexican League in 1979, the 18-year-old was elevated to Triple-A with the Leones de Yucatán, where he went 10–12 with a 2.49 ERA and 141 strikeouts. Dodgers scout Mike Brito discovered Valenzuela while evaluating a shortstop; after Valenzuela struck out that player on three straight pitches, Brito focused on the pitcher.

Los Angeles bought out his contract on July 6, 1979, for $120,000. The Dodgers assigned him to the High-A Lodi Dodgers, where he had a 1–2 record and a 1.13 ERA in limited action. Before the 1980 season, the Dodgers had pitcher Bobby Castillo teach Valenzuela the screwball. In 1980, with the Double-A San Antonio Dodgers, he led the Texas League with 162 strikeouts and finished 13–9 with a 3.10 ERA.

Player profile

Valenzuela relied on deception, command, and a large arsenal of off-speed pitches. He was never a power pitcher; at his peak he threw roughly 87–88 mph, which declined in later years. His longtime catcher Mike Scioscia said Valenzuela had impeccable command and could move a ball several inches off the corner at will, and that everything looked like a fastball out of his hand. He was best known for his screwball, which looked like a fastball and broke late; he could throw it at varying velocities and with vertical or lateral break.

He also threw an effective curveball, changeup, sinker, and slider, and added a cutter later in his career. A workhorse starter, Valenzuela remained effective late in games despite high pitch counts. In Game 3 of the 1981 World Series, he struggled early—needing 72 pitches to get through three innings—but convinced manager Tommy Lasorda to leave him in and completed the game, throwing over 145 pitches. His unusual windup included a skyward glance on every pitch and a high leg kick, a habit he developed in the minors.

Legacy

Valenzuela's 41.45 career wins above replacement is the highest for a Mexican player in MLB history. He was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in 2003, named to MLB's Latino Legends Team in 2005, enshrined in the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013, and inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2006. The Mexican League retired his number 34 league-wide in 2019. In Hall of Fame balloting, he received 6.3% of the vote in 2003 and dropped off the ballot the following year; as of 2025 he has not been considered by the Veterans Committee.

Commentators have questioned whether his mid-career decline was due to overuse—he led the league in batters faced three times in his first seven seasons—and whether modern practices might have allowed him to accumulate Hall of Fame counting stats. Dodgers orthopedist Frank Jobe attributed the decline to overuse, noting Valenzuela pitched a horrendous number of innings. Valenzuela was an iconic figure for the Mexican-American community in Los Angeles and transformed what had been a predominantly white Dodger fan base.

Illness and death

On October 1, 2024, Valenzuela was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness, and the Dodgers announced he would not broadcast for the remainder of the year. He died in a Los Angeles hospital on October 22, 2024, at age 63. His funeral was held on November 6, 2024, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, where his son Fernando Jr. and Mike Scioscia eulogized him. He was cremated and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

His illness was initially reported as liver cancer, but his death certificate concluded he died of septic shock attributed to a combination of nonalcoholic and alcoholic cirrhosis resulting in liver failure; the certificate also noted he might have been suffering from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Before Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, fans left flowers and memorabilia at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers held a ceremony with his family and a moment of silence; Orel Hershiser placed a baseball on the pitcher's mound painted with Valenzuela's number 34.

Flags flew at half-staff, a mariachi band performed, and the Dodgers wore a uniform patch honoring him during the World Series and 2025 season.