He was killed alongside José Castillo in a 2018 car crash in Venezuela caused by bandits in an attempted robbery.

He was raised by a single mother named Nelly, who was the president of the local youth baseball league.

[4] In July 2011, the Indians optioned Valbuena to Triple-A Columbus, to make room for the promotion of rookie second baseman Jason Kipnis.

[10] By June 2014, Fangraphs noted that Valbuena was hitting fastballs well in the lower, outer portions of the strike zone, which had been a weakness for him in previous years.

[14] With Jed Lowrie coming off the disabled list and Carlos Correa taking over the primary shortstop position, Valbuena was forced to share some of the first base duties along with Chris Carter and utility player Marwin González in order to get some playing time.

The players were members of Venezuelan winter team Cardenales de Lara, and were returning from a game played on the day of the crash.

[21] In the driver's attempt to avoid the robbers the vehicle struck a rock and overturned, killing Valbuena and Castillo.