GOODYEAR, Ariz. — There is no such thing as a skilled hitter presently hotter than Esmerlyn Valdez.
The Pirates’ 21-year-old outfield prospect hammered two extra residence runs Sunday throughout Salt River’s 11-3 win over Glendale at Goodyear Ballpark, giving him seven roundtrippers in eight video games. He’s 10-for-20 throughout his time within the Arizona Fall League, main the circuit with a 1.600 slugging proportion and a 2.286 OPS.
“My swing is ideal [right now], bro,” Valdez laughed.
Even for a historically offense-friendly circuit, Valdez’s early success has been downright historic.
To place in context how tremendously sizzling Pittsburgh’s No. 15 prospect is on the dish by the primary two weeks of Fall League play, take into account that he’s already tied for 14th on the circuit’s single-season residence run checklist. He’s hit as many residence runs in eight video games as a 19-year-old Ronald Acuña Jr. did throughout 23 contests in 2017. Josue Briceno, the Tigers’ No. 3 and MLB’s No. 33 general prospect, who grew to become the primary participant in AFL historical past to win the Triple Crown final 12 months, led the circuit with 10 roundtrippers in 106 plate appearances.
Brandon Wooden holds the single-season residence run mark with 14, set again in 2005 throughout his time as an Angels prospect. However he obtained there in 29 video games. Valdez has practically 4 extra full weeks of motion — the common season concludes on Nov. 12 — to problem that mark.
“Seeing the work ethic, seeing the best way he interacts along with his teammates, he’s a fantastic human being, nice particular person,” stated Salt River supervisor and Triple-A Indianapolis bench coach Eric Patterson. “He simply does a very nice job controlling his ABs. When he first obtained out right here, I feel he was getting spun to loss of life on all offspeed and he is carried out a very nice job of simply staying in his zone, not chasing. It is a very mature at-bat.”
That’s exemplified by simply how laborious Valdez is hitting the ball. Within the first inning Sunday, he ripped a first-pitch opposite-field RBI double at 106.1 mph off the bat. The lone out he made within the recreation — a groundout within the third — got here off the bat at 104.8 mph. The homers, within the fourth and sixth respectively, have been 107.9 and 108.3 mph.
There have been simply 16 cases in the course of the 2025 Main League season of a batter placing 4 balls in play at 104+ mph, which included All-Star names like Aaron Decide, Bryce Harper, Corbin Carroll and Pete Alonso.
When hitters are going good within the field, the phrase that’s usually used is that the ball appears to be like huge on its method in. When Valdez was requested if that’s what’s presently occurring, his eyes widened in settlement and he smiled with a drawn-out “Yeaaaaah.”
“I’m watching my at-bats [back] on a regular basis,” stated Valdez, who cited Pirates Minor League hitting improvement coordinator Jonathan Johnston as instrumental in working with the outfielder on his swing mechanics and pitch choice, with the 2 diving deep to place Valdez into counts wherein he can do harm.
Occurring a house run heater isn’t completely new territory to Valdez. He notched three homers in two video games on 4 separate events throughout 2023 and ‘24 between the Rookie-level Florida Advanced League and Single-A Bradenton. This season, he homered in three straight video games for Excessive-A Greensboro from Could 13-15, earlier than mashing 4 taters in a three-game stretch with Double-A Altoona from Aug. 28-30.
After homering in his Fall League debut on Oct. 7 after which once more the next day, Valdez hammered lengthy balls on Oct. 14, 15 and 16. His “good swing” has been a piece in progress since arriving in Arizona, even after he swatted an organization-high 26 residence runs between Greensboro and Altoona.
“He is discovering methods to get on base. After they do make errors, he is making them pay,” Patterson stated. “To look at these guys sort of navigate an at-bat and see them sort of hit what they need to hit — to go up there with a plan and follow it — it is actually cool to see.”
