{"id":803376,"date":"2026-09-12T19:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/803376\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T19:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:21:18","slug":"pirates-roster-moves-rookie-esmerlyn-valdez-placed-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/803376\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Roster Moves: Rookie Esmerlyn Valdez Placed on Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH \u2014 This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">PGHBaseballNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The Pirates have placed rookie outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. Valdez exited Friday\u2019s game against the Cubs in the sixth inning after injuring himself running to first base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">It\u2019s been a strong rookie season for Valdez, who has emerged as a long-coveted right-handed slugger. The 22-year-old is batting .232\/.345\/.510 with 14 doubles, one triple, 17 home runs and 47 RBI in 72 games. He leads all MLB rookies in slugging percentage and is tied for fifth (tied for second in the National League) in home runs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Valdez was named the National League Rookie of the Month for July after posting a .942 OPS and slugging eight home runs with 25 RBI in 25 games. He also became one of only six players since 1920 to hit 14 homers and drive in 36 runs in his first 37 career games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/pittsburgh-pirates-roster-moves-esmerlyn-valdez-injured-ronny-simon\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/pittsburgh-pirates-roster-moves-esmerlyn-valdez-injured-ronny-simon\/\">Click here to read more from PGHBaseballNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 This article originally appeared on PGHBaseballNOW.com. The Pirates have placed rookie outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,55483,2540,98082,4,10,95414,776,64,4297,5220],"class_list":["post-803376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-baseball","tag-esmerlyn-valdez","tag-injured-list","tag-ir","tag-mlb","tag-pirates","tag-pirates-injured-list","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates","tag-valdez"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117259697128051433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}