Esmerlyn Valdez finally found one. After 24 games without a home run, Valdez turned on a 90 mph fastball fromRobbie Ray on Monday night and sent it 413 feet into the left-center-field seats at Petco Park. The ball left his bat at 111.6 mph, giving Pittsburgh its first run in 22 innings and ending the longest power drought of Valdez’s young major-league career. It was the kind of swing that made him look like one of baseball’s most terrifying rookies earlier this summer. It was also a reminder of why the Pirates cannot let the month that came before scare them away.
Valdez’s first exposure to the majors looked almost unfair. Then pitchers adjusted, the strikeouts piled up, and the home runs vanished. That is not evidence that Pittsburgh was fooled by a hot start. It is the part of a rookie season where the league hands back the test with different questions. Now Valdez gets to answer them.
Jul 20, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Esmerlyn Valdez (55) hits a two-run home run during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn ImagesEsmerlyn Valdez Finally Broke ThroughPittsburgh desperately needed somebody to do something Monday. The Pirates had gone 22 consecutive innings without scoring, matching their longest drought of the season, before Valdez stepped to the plate in the sixth inning. His slump-breaking homer did more than remove a zero from the scoreboard. It provided the first sign in weeks of the devastating power that defined his arrival.
Esmerlyn Valdez breaks the scoreless tie with a scorching 111.6 MPH home run ? pic.twitter.com/E78UR6FVU7
— MLB (@MLB) August 25, 2026
Rafael Flores followed with an RBI double later in the inning, andNick Gonzales eventually delivered the winning hit in the 12th as Pittsburgh escaped with a 3-2 victory. The game mattered for a team clinging to distant postseason hopes, but Valdez’s swing may have mattered more for what Pittsburgh needs to learn over the final month. The Pirates already know Valdez can punish a mistake. They need to find out what happens after the league stops making as many of them. Monday’s homer was his 15th despite having only 205 at-bats this season.
The Rookie Cheat Code Was Never Going to LastValdez’s first 32 games looked like somebody accidentally lowered the difficulty setting. By July 22, he was batting .306 with a .377 on-base percentage and .750 slugging percentage. Valdez’s early explosion included the kind of power numbers usually reserved for created players in a video game, not a 22-year-old seeing major-league pitching for the first time. There was always going to be a counterpunch.
Pitchers stopped treating Valdez like an unfamiliar rookie and started building plans specifically for him. His long swing gives quality breaking balls a larger target to exploit, and major-league arms quickly learned that challenging him in predictable fastball counts was a poor choice. The results changed dramatically. Valdez has hit only .186 with a .352 on-base percentage and .309 slugging percentage over his last 30 games. He has struck out 47 times in 97 at-bats during that stretch. Those numbers are ugly. They are also useful information.
The Pirates should be much more interested in how Valdez responds to those problems than in protecting his season statistics from them. Sending him to the bench every time he enters a difficult stretch would prevent Pittsburgh from learning whether he can make the adjustments required of an everyday major-league hitter.
Encouraging Signs Despite the SlumpThe strikeouts deserve attention, but Valdez’s slump has not been completely empty. He has drawn 25 walks over his last 30 games, helping him maintain a .352 on-base percentage despite batting below .200. That matters because young power hitters often respond to struggles by expanding the strike zone and trying to hit a five-run homer every time they come to the plate. Valdez has not completely fallen into that trap.
His current season line sits at .249 with a .364 on-base percentage and .905 OPS. Nobody would confuse the recent version with the hitter who slugged .750 through his first 32 games, but the entire rookie season remains productive despite a significant correction. That should change how Pittsburgh views the slump. If Valdez were chasing everything, refusing to walk and producing nothing when he made contact, the concern would be much larger. Instead, his main issue has become making enough contact to access the power that everyone already knows exists.
THE MAGICIAN MAKES 2 RUNS APPEAR WITH A DOUBLE!!
Esmerlyn Valdez just continues to rake against LHP
110.5 MPH exit velocity, .930 xBA pic.twitter.com/grgCFvLR06
— Platinum Key (@PlatinumKey13) August 14, 2026
The Pirates knew swing-and-miss would be part of the package before his promotion. Valdez’s first opportunity was never supposed to prove that weakness had vanished. It was supposed to show whether the rest of the package was worth developing around it. So far, it is.
Pittsburgh Needs to Let the Counter-Adjustment HappenThis is the stage where development gets interesting. A prospect dominates the minors. He reaches the majors and succeeds before opponents have a complete scouting report. Pitchers gather information, identify holes, and stop feeding him the pitches he prefers. Then comes the part that separates a dangerous rookie from a sustainable major-league hitter. The hitter adjusts back.
Valdez now knows how teams want to attack him. He has seen pitchers expand away, change speeds, and exploit the length in his swing. The remaining 29 games give Pittsburgh a perfect laboratory for determining whether he can shorten up with two strikes, stay through breaking pitches, and punish fastballs when pitchers are forced back into the zone.
Manager Don Kelly should resist using every difficult matchup as a reason to sit him. Strategic rest is normal for any rookie, but Valdez should remain an everyday presence in right field through September.
Valdez’s surprising defensive growth makes that decision easier. He was viewed largely as a bat-first prospect whose eventual home might be first base or designated hitter, but he has looked more capable in the outfield than anticipated. That gives Pittsburgh another reason to invest in the growing pains rather than hide them.
The Standings Should Change Pittsburgh’s PrioritiesThe Pirates are 64-69 with 29 games remaining and sit 7½ games behind the final National League Wild Card spot. The mathematics still allow for a run, but Pittsburgh has reached the point where every decision cannot revolve around squeezing another fraction of a percent out of its playoff probability. The organization has to look toward 2027 at the same time.
That means September should belong to players who could actually influence the next competitive roster. Valdez belongs squarely in that category, as does Flores, whose recentmajor-league surge has created another potentially important bat for the future.
Pittsburgh has spent too many rebuilding seasons using September to cycle through fringe players who disappear from the roster months later. This situation is different. Valdez and Flores are not placeholders. They have a legitimate chance to occupy meaningful lineup spots next season. The Pirates should use the remaining schedule to learn what those players need to improve before Opening Day rather than sheltering them from failure. Winning still matters. So does making sure September losses produce useful answers.
Valdez Does Not Need to Become the June Version AgainThe biggest mistake Pittsburgh could make is expecting Valdez’s original pace to become his permanent standard. A .750 slugging percentage was never a reasonable baseline. Neither was hitting home runs every few games while terrorizing virtually every fastball that entered the strike zone. The Pirates do not need that hitter to build around Valdez. They need a sustainable version.
If he can eventually settle into something closer to a .250 hitter with a strong walk rate, 25-plus home-run power and playable corner-outfield defense, Pittsburgh has found an extremely useful everyday player. If the contact improves enough to raise that ceiling, the Pirates could have something much more significant. That is why the next month matters. Valdez’s rookie season has already shown Pittsburgh the best-case scenario. The recent slump is showing the organization what must be fixed to make any version of that scenario last.
Monday’s home run did not mean those problems disappeared. One 413-foot missile does not erase 24 games of frustration, just as 24 homerless games should not erase everything Valdez accomplished before them. The Pirates do not need to decide whether Esmerlyn Valdez is finished developing. They need to give him enough at-bats to continue doing it.
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Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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