Pirates’ Esmerlyn Valdez has 8 homers in 10 games in the Arizona Fall League

7 comments

1. In 123 games between Bradenton and Altoona, Valdez hit .286 with 26 home runs. He had a .896 OPS and recorded a wRC+ of 156. Valdez turns just 22 in January. Where does he start 2026? Indy? How soon will he make his MLB debut?

2. Career stats:

   [https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=valdez000esm](https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=valdez000esm)

3. AFL stats:

   [https://www.mlb.com/arizona-fall-league/stats/](https://www.mlb.com/arizona-fall-league/stats/)

4. Fangraphs’ Longenhagen has some thoughts today on Valdez’s AFL performance so far, and changes in his batting stance this year which helped his hitting:

   [https://blogs.fangraphs.com/arizona-fall-league-prospect-stock-check-in/](https://blogs.fangraphs.com/arizona-fall-league-prospect-stock-check-in/)

5. John Dreker gives more insight into Valdez’s hot streak in Arizona for Bucs on Deck:

   [https://bucsondeck.substack.com/p/morning-rundown-esmerlyn-valdez-hits](https://bucsondeck.substack.com/p/morning-rundown-esmerlyn-valdez-hits)

   This quote is very encouraging:

   “Valdez leads the league with 15 walks, so he actually only has 22 at-bats this season, meaning 36.4% of his at-bats end in homers. He has a .545 average and a 2.400 OPS.

6. He could be the next Cruz

7. Kid’s got an awesome swing. So pumped to see his improvement