Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea (; November 1, 1960 – October 22, 2024), nicknamed "El Toro", was a Mexican professional baseball pitcher. Valenzuela played 17 Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons, from 1980 to 1997 (except for a one-year sabbatical in Mexico in 1992). He played for six MLB teams, most prominently with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who signed him in 1979 and gave him his MLB debut in 1980. Valenzuela batted and threw left-handed, with an unorthodox windup. He was one of a small number of pitchers who regularly threw a screwball in the modern era.

Valenzuela enjoyed his breakout year in 1981, when "Fernandomania" rapidly catapulted him from relative obscurity to stardom. He won his first eight starts, five of them shutouts, and finished with a win–loss record of 13–7 and had a 2.48 earned run average (ERA) in a season that was shortened by a player's strike. He became the first, and , only player to win both the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season. The Dodgers won the World Series that year.

Valenzuela peaked from 1981 to 1986, when he was named a National League (NL) All-Star in each season. He won an NL-leading 21 games in 1986, when he was a runner-up to Mike Scott of the Houston Astros for the Cy Young Award. Valenzuela was also one of the better hitting pitchers of his era. He had ten career home runs and was occasionally used by Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda as a pinch-hitter. In 1986, he signed the then-largest contract for a pitcher in baseball history ($5.5 million/3 years). He was on the Dodgers' 1988 World Series championship team, but sat out the postseason with a shoulder injury. Valenzuela threw a no-hitter in 1990 before the Dodgers released him prior to the 1991 season. He spent the rest of his major league career with the California Angels, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, and St. Louis Cardinals, before pitching a couple of seasons in Mexico in his 40s.

Valenzuela returned to the Dodgers organization after retiring, serving as a broadcaster from 2003 to 2024, the year of his death. The Dodgers retired his 34 in 2023. His career highlights include a record of 173–153, with an ERA of 3.54. His 41.5 career wins above replacement (according to Baseball Reference) is the highest of any Mexican-born MLB player.

Early life

Valenzuela was born on November 1, 1960, in Etchohuaquila, a small town within the municipality of Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. He was the youngest of 12 children. His parents, Avelino and María, were poor farmers who worked the land with the help of their children and were of Mayo indigenous ancestry. Although Valenzuela is not an indigenous surname, many Mayo and Yaqui indigenous families adopted it during the Porfiriato dictatorship to avoid forcible removal from their lands, similar to the case of Ritchie Valens (who was born Richard Valenzuela).

Playing career

Early career in Mexico

In 1977, Valenzuela began his professional baseball career, signing with the Mayos de Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific League. A year later, he was sent to the Guanajuato Tuzos of the Mexican Central League, posting a 5–6 win–loss record with a 2.23 earned run average (ERA). The following year, the Mexican Central League was absorbed into the expanded Mexican League, automatically elevating then 18-year-old Valenzuela to the Triple-A level. Pitching for the Leones de Yucatán that year, Valenzuela went 10–12 with a 2.49 ERA and 141 strikeouts.

A number of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams scouted Valenzuela during this time. Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, conscious of the large Latino population in Los Angeles, had wanted a Mexican ace pitcher for some time. Even so, the Dodgers found Valenzuela by accident. They sent scout Mike Brito to a game in Mexico to evaluate a shortstop named Ali Uscanga. Valenzuela threw three balls to Uscanga to fall behind in the count and then threw three straight strikes for the strikeout. Brito said later that at that point, he "forgot all about the shortstop". The Dodgers bought out Valenzuela's Liga contract on July 6, 1979, for $120,000 (about $521,158 in 2024), of which $20,000 went to Valenzuela and $100,000 went to the team. The New York Yankees subsequently offered $150,000, but the Leones honored their original deal, and Valenzuela became a Dodger. Brito worried that Valenzuela did not throw with enough velocity and felt that he needed to develop an off-speed pitch, so the Dodgers had their pitcher Bobby Castillo teach him to throw the screwball before the 1980 season. In 1980 Valenzuela was promoted to the Double-A San Antonio Dodgers, where he led the Texas League with 162 strikeouts and finished the season with a 13–9 win-loss record and a 3.10 ERA.

Valenzuela was called up to the major leagues in September 1980, serving as a reliever in the last month of the season.

"Fernandomania"

thumb|left|upright|Valenzuela warming up for the [[Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981]]

Following his successful stint as a reliever in 1980, Valenzuela transitioned to a full-time starter role in his 1981 rookie season. He was unexpectedly named the Dodgers' Opening Day starter as a rookie after Jerry Reuss was injured 24 hours before his scheduled start, and Burt Hooton was not ready to fill in. However, he filled in and shut out the Houston Astros 2–0. He was the first rookie to start Opening Day for the Dodgers. Valenzuela's unusual and flamboyant pitching motion, including a glance skyward at the apex of each wind-up, drew attention of its own. His most prominent and effective pitch was the screwball, which had not been a popular pitch for decades.

An instant media icon, Valenzuela drew large crowds from Los Angeles' Latino community every time he pitched, and his rookie 1981 Topps and Fleer baseball cards were in high demand. The craze surrounding Valenzuela came to be known as "Fernandomania".

In the NL West Division Series against the Houston Astros, Valenzuela became the youngest pitcher to start the first game of any postseason series. He also threw a 147-pitch