Offspeed
Dead Fish Changeup
Picture a changeup that just dies on its way to the plate. Valdez throws his from whatever arm angle the situation calls for, buries it deep in the palm so it has almost no spin to hold it up, and lets it drop straight out of the hitter's swing path — which is why batters wave at it and walk back to the dugout.
The grip
A changeup seated deep in the palm and delivered from shifting arm slots — overhand, sidearm, or near-submarine — so the fingers bleed off speed and the release point itself changes the tilt of the spin.
Grip and variable-arm-angle mechanics are described in MLB.com's analysis and the Baltimore Sun feature; this is a paraphrase of those reporting/analysis pieces rather than a measured spec.
What it does
It falls off the table — the low-spin, palm-deep delivery lets gravity dominate for a vertical plunge well past a normal changeup, and because the arm slot moves the same pitch can break either arm-side or glove-side.
The dramatic drop is drawn from MLB.com's 2020 Statcast-era analysis of Valdez's pitch; described here as shape only, never as a measured figure, and the directional break depends on the arm slot used.
What it really is
A deadened, variable-arm-angle variant of the changeup family: it shares the changeup's late-arrival intent but is set apart from a circle change by its deliberately killed spin feel, extreme axis rotation, and multi-slot delivery — distinct enough to be filed on its own, not a pure alias.
Who throws itCésar Valdez, whose Orioles bullpen run in 2020 made it his signature out pitch and the pitch's namesake; an unusually changeup-heavy arm built almost entirely around it.
Basic file
This pitch has a sourced one-line grip and movement and an honest explanation — not yet a filed specimen with authored grip geometry and a full craft chapter. A fuller breakdown is coming. Sourced, not corrected.