OAKLAND – Catcher Bruce Maxwell caught Cesar Valdez a couple of times at Nashville earlier this month, and he’s excited for Valdez’s first game with the A’s Thursday.
With Oakland looking for a replacement for at least one game after Kendall Graveman wound up on the disabled list Monday, Valdez is being called up to make the first start of a four-game series against the Seattle Mariners.
Signed by the Diamondbacks out of the Dominican Republic in 2005, he has pitched in the big leagues before, but not since 2010, when he threw in nine games, two of them starts.