9-News: 41-015 – Valle Inks Historic Deal

[RonCo]

Young Ace Signs Biggest Hurler Deal in Nine History

With Carlos Valle coming off a season where he won 20 games, led the league in ERA, and took the Nebraska award, Yellow Springs executives knew he wasn’t going to come cheap. They were looking down the barrel, though, and with the 27-year-old superstar facing a walk year, they ponied up $126M for six season, not counting bonuses that could sweeten the deal another $20M or so.

All total, it adds up to the single largest deal the club has ever let to a pitcher (at least since 2025 then Ron Collins took over the reigns).

That’s right: more than Jose Chavez’s $96M deal they inked in 2028, more than Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh’s $90M pact from 2032, and more, again than the $70M contract they later gave in an attempt to keep the aging Chavez in Yellow Springs Red and Black for his entire career. Of course, none of those deals were the most any pitcher had received from Yellow Springs prior to Valle’s deal—that was Domingo Castillo, who Collins signed to a 6/$115M deal way back in 2026.

“I’m thrilled to be a Yellow Springs Nine for the next six years,” Valle said before he went out and struck out eight Tropic batters en route to beating Hawaii 4-2. As of this writing, Valle sets at 5-2 on the year. Other than a single off outing in Madison, he’s started right where he left off in 2040.

TOP OVERALL STILL BELONGS TO McNEILL

The Valle signing qualifies as only the second largest deal in the Collins era, behind the 6-season $169M deal the team used to keep Lucas McNeill in Yellow Springs during the Great Escape that saw LaLoosh, Angel De Castillo, and Jose Souza, and Carlos Garcia all bolt for big paychecks before the fateful 2037 season.

Technically, we could not that the season before the Nine acquired Collins’s services, the previous reign matched a $141M, 6-season Rule 6 draft offer made to Luis “Tuna” Baca, which may well be the second richest contract in team history.

FANS THRILLED

If early returns are to be accepted, it’s clear that fans in Yellow Springs are psyched about the signing. Turnstiles have been buzzing as the club returns home. The timing of the deal has made some pundits ponder whether the club waited to announce the deal until this past week specifically to coincide with the Nine’s home string.

“That was just happenstance,” Collins said. “We’ve been working on it off and on for a month or so.”

Regardless, fans don’t seem to care if they are being manipulated at all. “If that’s what it is,” said Marge Sanders, a local cleaning business owner, “go ahead and manipulate me more!”