Fernando Valenzuela dies at 63: Dodgers legend was rookie sensation, became MLB’s best Mexican-born player

Legendary Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela has died, the team announced Tuesday. He was 63. Valenzuela will be honored when the 2024 World Series begins at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

“Fernando Valenzuela was one of the most impactful players of his generation,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “… We will honor Fernando’s memory during the 2024 World Series at Dodger Stadium. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Fernando’s family, the Dodgers, his friends across the game, and all the loyal baseball fans of Mexico.”

With a unique delivery and an almost mysterious aura, Valenzuela was a larger-than-life figure who left an indelible mark on the Latino community, particularly in Southern California. “Fernandomania” captivated the region and Dodgers fans in the early 1980s, when the left-hander made his MLB debut as a 19-year-old in 1980.

In 1981, Valenzuela won the NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards as a 20-year-old by going 13-7 with a 2.48 ERA in a league-leading 192 1/3 innings during the strike-shortened season. He won his first eight starts that season, completing seven of them, and threw five shutouts. Valenzuela made five starts in the 1981 postseason and threw an incredible 40 2/3 innings with a 2.21 ERA as the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series.

Valenzuela went to six consecutive All-Star Games from 1981-86 and also finished in the top five of the Cy Young voting in 1982 1985, and 1986. Although 1981 was his finest season, Valenzuela was one of baseball’s greatest pitchers in the 1980s. He averaged 266 innings per year from 1982-87 with a 3.19 ERA, and was the game’s preeminent workhorse. Valenzuela led the league with 21 wins in 1986 and in complete games in both 1985 and 1986.

On June 19, 1990, Valenzuela threw a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium. That day, Oakland Athletics ace Dave Stewart also no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays. It is the only time in baseball history two no-hitters were thrown on the same day.

After 11 seasons with the Dodgers, Valenzuela finished his career with stints with the California Angels, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, and Cardinals. He also played in the Mexican League. Valenzuela finished his career with a 173-153 record and a 3.54 ERA. He is the all-time leader in wins (173) and innings (2,930) among Mexican-born pitchers. Valenzuela is, by any measure, the greatest Mexican-born player in MLB history.

“It would be really great if they remembered me as someone who always tried his best to always give them a good show, so that they could have fun with this beautiful game,” Valenzuela told MLB.com in 2021.

Born and raised in the small town of Etchohuaquila, Valenzuela began his playing career against much older competition as a teenager with the Yucatan Leones of the Mexican League in the 1970s. The Dodgers eventually signed him for $120,000, at the time an enormous sum for a player in the Mexican League. Valenzuela made his MLB debut on Sept. 15, 1980, and appeared in two games that season before joining the rotation full-time in 1981.

In 1983, Valenzuela became the first player to win a $1 million award through arbitration. Three years later, he signed a $5.5 million contract, then the largest ever for a pitcher. The Dodgers and Valenzuela did not always have the best relationship, though he eventually accepted an ambassador role with the team, and spent 22 seasons in the club’s Spanish language broadcast booth. He stepped away from the booth to focus on his health earlier this year.

“He meant so much to the Latino fan base,” Dodgers’ Spanish language broadcaster Jaime Jarrin said about Valenzuela (via the Orange County Register). “No other baseball player did what he did. He made so many baseball fans, more than anyone else. People who came here from Latin America didn’t care about baseball. But they became fans of Fernando and because of him baseball fans.”

Although no player wore Valenzuela’s No. 34 after he left the team following the 1990 season, the Dodgers did not officially retire the number in his honor until 2023. Valenzuela fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2004, his second year of eligibility.